When he turned 50 he gave himself the birthday present to end all others--a trip to the end of the Earth to run his most unforgettable race.            The Coolest Race on Earth is both Hanc’s story and the story of the Antarctica Marathon, first held in 1995 and now an annual event that sells out years in advance. It’s full of humor, adventure, and inspiring characters--including a wheelchair-bound competitor, three record-breaking grandmothers, and an ex-Marine who described the race as “the hardest thing I ever did in my life, next to Vietnam.”            Muddy, cold, hilly, the race is by all accounts horrible--up and down a melting glacier twice, past curious penguins and hostile skuas, and finally to a bleak finish line. Even the best runners take longer to run the Antarctica Marathon than any other.            Yet the allure of marathon running combined with the fascinating reputation of the Last Continent has persuaded runners to brave a trip across the world’s most turbulent body of water, the Drake Passage, to a land of extinct volcanoes and craggy mountain peaks, lost explorers and isolated scientists, penguin rookeries and whale sightings, all for a chance to run those crazy 26.2 miles. The Coolest Race on Earth brings the world’s most difficult marathon to life in a book that’s not only a ripping read, but also a deeply funny meditation on what makes people run.

     In the years before the First World War, Filson Young had become friends with several notable Royal Navy leaders, including Lord Fisher and Admiral Beatty. Following the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, Young began to miss his friends and resolved to join them and share in their experiences. Even though volunteer officers were ridiculed, Young wrote to his friends and managed to engineer a Lieutenant’s gazette in the R.N.V.R. Buoyed by the success of the Scarborough raid, Admiral Hipper of the Imperial German Navy sought a repeat of the exercise, this time against the fishing fleet on the Dogger Bank. Young was there to witness it. First published in 1921, With the Battle Cruisers is a very personal, focused study of naval life during wartime as it unfolded for Young. Filson Young (1876-1938) was an Irish writer, journalist, war correspondent and essayist. He was noted for publishing a book about the sinking of the Titanic little over a month after the tragedy in 1912. Between November 1914 and May 1915 he served as a Lieutenant R.N.V.R.; With the Battle Cruisers was one of two books he wrote about his naval service.

    (The Continental Divide Trail is scarier.) There, she faced the icy winds of the Mojave Desert and the brutal heat of the snowless High Sierras, the choking smoke of Oregon and the vicious marmots of Washington. Rabid is a semi-fictional account of the weird and wonderful world that Libby found on the Pacific Crest Trail, a world where time is measured by distance from Mexico, where poop is a casual conversation topic, and where hikers are stalked by the worshipful followers of their trail blogs. Darkly humorous, Rabid tells of the beautiful, high-energy, technology-permeated, sometimes-overcrowded, modern thru-hiking experience.

    She claimed the police had inserted a stick inside her… Swaranpreet realised that she had been cruelly violated; He spoke a single sentence but repeated it twice in chaste Punjabi: ‘Please give me a turban? I want nothing else…’ These are voices begging for deliverance in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination in October-November 1984 in which 2,733 Sikhs were killed, burnt and exterminated by lumpens in the country. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay walks us through one of the most shameful episodes of sectarian violence in post Independent India and highlights the apathy of subsequent governments towards Sikhs who paid a price for what was clearly a state-sponsored riot. Poignant, raw and most importantly, macabre, the personal histories in the book reveal how even after three decades, a community continues to battle for its identity in its own country.

    Everyone from schoolboys to socialites knew of these glamorous 'named trains' and aspired to ride aboard them. In Belles and Whistles, Andrew Martin recreates five of these famous train journeys by travelling aboard their nearest modern day equivalents. Sometimes their names have survived, even if only as a footnote on a timetable leaflet, but what has usually - if not always - disappeared is the extravagance and luxury. As Martin explains how we got from there to here, evocations of the golden age contrast with the starker modern reality: from monogrammed cutlery to stirring sticks, from silence on trains to tannoy announcements, from compartments to airline seating. For those who wonder whatever happened to porters, dining cars, mellow lighting, timetables, luggage in advance, trunk murders, the answers are all here. Martin's five journeys add up to an idiosyncratic history of Britain's railways, combining humour, historical anecdote, reportage from the present and romantic evocations of the past.

    Nominated for running book of the year in The Running Awards 2019.

    We were traveling with no fixed time limit, no reservations, and only a loose idea of our itinerary. Our goal was to see if we could still have the kind of spontaneous adventures we’d enjoyed in our youth. We spent three months on trains, mostly in Eastern Europe, and the results – often hilarious, occasionally harrowing, definitely life-changing – form the basis of my new book, Adventures of a Railway Nomad: How Our Journeys Guide Us Home. "Adventurous and bold . . . full of twists and surprises." – Chris Brady, NY Times bestselling author of A Month of ItalyI traveled 6000 miles on 38 trains through 13 countries: Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia. "Karen's storytelling is, if possible, even more enticing than her astonishing journey." – Alicia Bay Laurel, bestselling author of Living on the Earth

    *Includes Cagney's own quotes about his life and career. *Includes a bibliography for further reading. *Includes a table of contents. "You don't psych yourself up for these things, you do them...I'm acting for the audience, not for myself, and I do it as directly as I can." – James Cagney A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history’s most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors’ American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America’s most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. When the American Film Institute assembled its top 100 actors of all time at the close of the 20th century, one of the Top 10 was James Cagney, an actor whose acting and dancing talents spawned a stage and film career that spanned over 5 decades and once compelled Orson Welles to call him "maybe the greatest actor to ever appear in front of a camera." Indeed, his portrayal of “The Man Who Owns Broadway”, George M. Cohan, earned him an Academy Award in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy, and as famed director Milos Forman once put it, "I think he's some kind of genius. His instinct, it's just unbelievable. I could just stay at home. One of the qualities of a brilliant actor is that things look better on the screen than the set. Jimmy has that quality." Ultimately, it was portraying tough guys and gangsters in the 1930s that turned Cagney into a massive Hollywood star, and they were the kind of roles he was literally born to play after growing up rough in Manhattan at the turn of the 20th century. In movies like The Public Enemy (which included the infamous “grapefruit scene”) and White Heat, Cagney convincingly played criminals that brought Warner to the forefront of Hollywood and the gangster genre. Cagney also helped pave the way for younger actors in the genre, like Humphrey Bogart, and he was so good that he found himself in danger of being typecast. While Cagney is no longer remembered as fondly or as well as Bogart, he was also crucial in helping establish the system in which actors worked as independent workers free from the constraints of studios. Refusing to be pushed around, Cagney was constantly involved in contract squabbles with Warner, and he often came out on top, bucking the conventional system that saw studios treat their stars as indentured servants who had to make several films a year. American Legends: The Life of James Cagney examines the life and career of one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Cagney like never before, in no time at all.

    Here [St Peter’s] Popes with black faces and golden crowns are wallowing twice life-size in the titanic folds of marble tablecloths, their ormolu fringes festooning upon the arms of graceful skeletons to disclose some Alice-in-Wonderland door or the grim hinges of some sepulchral grill . . .  Best known as the author of The Road to Oxiana, published in 1937, Robert Byron had developed his considerable writing skills on this travel book which has not been in print since 1926. It describes a journey Byron made with three friends, driving across Europe between two world wars, and mixes political and historical analysis with architectural insights, classical scholarship, and the day-to-day adventures of three young and not very experienced travelers. For fans of Robert Byron’s work this will be a discovery; for others it will be an introduction. Includes nine original sketches made by the author during his travels.

    However, trail life is not always as rewarding and romantic as the pictures you see or second-hand stories you hear. "Divided" provides an accurate account of life on trail: what hikers ponder, eat, love, loathe, and the questions they tire of answering. Some moments are too short, some are painfully long while others are whisked away unceremoniously with the wind. Follow along on the journey as Brian navigates difficulties, successes and everything between while attempting to walk from Mexico to Canada. “The greatest challenge of being a long-distance backpacker is learning how to live fully on - and off - the trail. In 'Divided,' Brian shares the rugged beauty and grueling challenges of the Continental Divide Trail along with thought-provoking insights which encourage the reader to reassess his or her own path and consider new alternatives.” Jennifer Pharr Davis, "The Pursuit of Endurance" “If you’ve ever wondered what it is like to wander along the entire length of the multi-thousand mile Continental Divide Trail, Brian Cornell’s 'Divided' will take you on a journey from Mexico to Canada that just may have you planning your own hike of this magnificent trail!” Lawton Grinter, "I Hike Again" " 'Divided' is unlike any hiking memoir I've read. Cornell is undeniably talented and his unique prose vividly conveys the hypnotic nature of long-distance hiking without leaving the reader in a trance. A modern-day 'Desert Solitaire.' " Gary Sizer, "Where’s the Next Shelter?" "An honest look at what life on the Divide is truly like." Heather Anderson, "Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home"

    ‘I can’t do it!’ I sulked. Mother sighed and shook her head. My heart sank. Of course, I’d seen the mill hundreds of times before, but now it was different – now, I was going in. I’d never seen a place so depressing; I wanted to cry.'With tales from hardworking Audrey and mischievous Maureen to high-spirited Doris and dedicated Marjorie, The Mill Girls is an evocative story of hardship and friendship from when cotton was still king. Through the eyes of these northern mill girls, we are offered a fascinating glimpse into the lives of ordinary women who rallied together, nattered over the beamers and, despite the difficult conditions, weaved, packed and laughed to keep the cotton mills spinning.

    But is the truth strong enough to make it last? Filled with rage and grief over the execution of his innocent brother, Ranulf Thorburn, Scottish laird of clan Thorburn, kidnaps the daughter of the Duke of Whitewood, Catrin. But what he doesn’t expect is that this Sassenach lass has a fire inside of her. One that threatens to burn him… Catrin is unlike any other Lady. Underneath her passionate nature hides a true fighter that will put even this Laird to shame! Either way, she will not submit to this Highlander without a fight. Especially not to the one whose brother murdered hers. But getting to know him will make her question everything that she’s know until now… The road for Ranulf and Catrin will be rough and full of challenges. As they try to redeem the honor of Ranulf’s brother, and uncover the true assassin, they are bound to face many obstacles. Will they manage to stick together, when everything around them tries to tear them apart? "Highlander's Honor is a Historical Scottish Highlander Warrior Romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after. Get This Book FREE With Kindle Unlimited!

    Cricket is a funny old game - even when rain stops play! Now you can read not only the most popular stories by five of the game's all-time great characters - Richie Benaud, Dickie Bird, Henry Blofeld, Brian Johnston and Fred Trueman - but also the humour and insights of modern players including Michael Atherton, Andrew Flintoff, Darren Gough, Kevin Pietersen and Shane Warne. Crammed full of dozens of hilarious anecdotes about legendary Test cricketers such as Ian Botham, Geoffrey Boycott, Denis Compton, Michael Holding and Merv Hughes - plus broadcasting gaffes, sledging, short-sighted umpires and the first male streaker at Lord's!

    Born in Virginia in 1826, Nelson ran away from home as a young teenager to escape a domineering father and to seek adventure in the west. He took odd jobs along with way working on farms, serving as a cabin boy on a Mississippi steamer, and becoming an apprentice with a group of traders traveling west from Missouri. After meeting a band of Sioux, he decided that the nomadic life of an Indian was the adventure he was looking for and got himself adopted into the tribe. Here he learned how to live off the land and acquired the skills of a Sioux warrior. His adopted father was the Chief Spotted Tail and his brother-in-law was Red Cloud—Chief of the Sioux Nation. As a young Sioux brave, Nelson participated in Indian raids and skirmishes. Later, he guided Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, worked as a military scout with William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), fought in the Indian Wars, and served as a lawman in North Dakota. In his many escapades he often narrowly escaped death from bullets, arrows, and knives. Nelson’s story is a fascinating view of the early American west in all its glory. This pre-1923 publication has been converted from its original format for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the conversion.

    That unmistakable urge was already growing inside of Mike Krabal when he received advice from a wise soul of eighty-one years to "get out more." In October 2011, he traded his life in a small West Virginia town for 132 days on America's open road. Through vivid observation, he tells of hair-raising run-ins with wild animals, wild people, and the wicked Hangover Fairy. Youthful curiosity charts the course, and his trusty motorcycle, the Goose, hauls the gear. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, exotic landscapes, fresh mornings in unfamiliar towns, and more than 17,000 miles pass. No detail is left behind in this friendly, funny, and mischievous story of discovery away from home. (black and white ebook) *Update 2/23/2016: I've just released 132 Days A journey A journal and some Whiskey COLOR PHOTO EDITION. It features over 900 color photos to best capture the essence of a coast-to-coast American adventure, and it's now available on Amazon.com. Here's the link - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B...-