The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies will illustrate how the Mansion's 999 "grim grinning ghosts" moved from sketches to reality, evolving from earliest story concepts through adaptations and changes as it moved into each of the parks, to the very latest ideas for show enhancements. This book will also confirm or dispel the various myths and rumors that surround the mysterious Mansion's story. In recent years, The Walt Disney Company has seen the demand for theme park attraction-specific merchandise explode, and the Haunted Mansion resides at the top of the list. Fans are waiting with super(natural) anticipation for the upcoming movie, and this book will also explore the latest technology developed to bring the Mansion's inhabitants to an afterlife like never before.

    A stunning overview of all human history, side by side with 140 custom maps.Learn how something like the printing press can define a time, or how the Allies in Europe could defeat the Nazis. There is so much to read about in this remarkable history book, and just as much to look at.Maps are more than the topography of the Earth or the borders of countries. Maps can represent the movement of people and ideas, and they provide a unique way to explain historical themes and explore sweeping periods of time.This stunning visual reference book starts with the evolution and migration of our oldest ancestors out of Africa. You can then look up maps about the Greece and Persian War, the Mongol Conquests, Medieval Europe's trade routes, and the rise of the Ottomans. There are maps about the colonization of North America, the scientific revolution, Napoleon's advances, and Britain's control of India. There's more in later centuries, like the Age of Imperialism, the American Civil War, industrialized Europe, and the transformation of Japan.This history book reaching across millennia gives you a broad view of the pivotal events in our past. With 140 maps, complimented with pictures, info boxes, and timelines, there's so much to enjoy and learn about. You will gain a strong understanding of some of the forces and movements across continents that have shaped our world.A Map Guided Tour of World HistoryInside this beautiful cover are concise and fascinating historical information, 140 custom maps, and many ways to engage in history that will interest many readers, from students wanting additional resources for school to history buffs that love a good book and cartography.Go on a guided tour through time:- Prehistory 7 MYA-3000 BCE - The Ancient World 3000 BCE-500 CE - Middle Ages 500-1450 CE - The Early Modern World 1450-1700 - Revolution and Industry 1700-1850 - Progress and Empire 1850-1914 - The Modern World 1914-Present

    Now they explore the compulsion through a series of compelling case studies in the vein of Oliver Sacks. With vivid portraits that show us the traits by which you can identify a hoarder's piles on sofas and beds that make the furniture useless, houses that can be navigated only by following small paths called goat trails, vast piles of paper that the hoarders "churn" but never discard, even collections of animals and garbage; Frost and Steketee illuminate the pull that possessions exert on all of us. Whether we're savers, collectors, or compulsive cleaners, very few of us are in fact free of the impulses that drive hoarders to the extremes in which they live. For all of us with complicated relationships to our things, Stuff answers the question of what happens when our stuff starts to own us.

    From Florida's Road to Flamingo to Hawaii's Oahu Coastal Loop . . . from British Columbia's Sea to Sky Highway to Cape Cod's Sandy Shores . . . each featured road trip is pictured in stunning full color and described in vivid text, keyed to an easy-to-follow newly revised map. Whether you choose a drive in a far corner of the continent or a back road in your own state, this book is your ticket to North America's most beautiful byways.Drives are grouped in four pictured-packed sections-Western, Mountain, Central, and Eastern states and provinces-and are accompanied by detailed, easy-to-use maps. New drives featuring some of Canada's most stunning destinations have been added. As a bonus, handy Trip Tip sidebars include: Mileage best season to travel nearby attractions special events "learn more" contact information including website addressesA special feature called Star Routes offers thumbnail sketches of shorter but especially scenic roads located in the same region as the main tours. Additional boxes highlight distinctive characteristics of the areas, including local plants, animals, customs, foods, and a variety of historical events.Whether on the road or in the comfort of your easy chair, this newly revised Reader's Digest travel guide will be a welcome companion.

    Now, using advanced imaging technology, scientists have solved the mystery of its intricate workings. Unmatched in complexity for a thousand years, the mechanism functioned as the world's first analog computer, calculating the movements of the sun, moon, and planets through the zodiac. In Decoding the Heavens, Jo Marchant details for the first time the hundred-year quest to decode this ancient computer. Along the way she unearths a diverse cast of remarkable characters--ranging from Archimedes to Jacques Cousteau--and explores the deep roots of modern technology, not only in ancient Greece, but in the Islamic world and medieval Europe. At its heart, this is an epic adventure story, a book that challenges our assumptions about technology development through the ages while giving us fresh insights into history itself.

    The Gieses take us through the full cycle of a medieval year, dictated by the rhythms of the harvest. We learn what lords and serfs alike would have worn, eaten, and done for leisure, and of the outside threats the castle always hoped to keep at bay.For medieval buffs and anyone who wants to learn more about this fascinating era, Life in a Medieval Castle is as timely today as when it was first published.

    has been fully revised. Packed with 75% new material, L.A. Bizarro boasts scores of fresh discoveries plus original photos presented in luscious, lurid color. Connoisseurs of the weird and wonderful, Anthony Lovett and Matt Maranian steer readers into a world of culinary curiosities, morbid museums, sexual sideshows, and dipsomaniacal dives. From pet cemeteries to piata district, hundreds of odd and outr delights are laid bare for visitors and Angelenos alike.

    Highly pictorial, these Eyewitness Travel Guides are now offered in a tenth anniversary edition, with all the information savvy travelers need to know.

    Fueled by intensive reading for his bestselling novel, Hemingway's Chair, and, as always, driven by a desire to discover new places, Michael Palin attempts to put himself into Hemingway's world. The past and the present intertwine, sometimes to startling effect, as Michael travels from Chicago to the forests and lakes of north Michigan, and from the First World War battlefields in Italy to Paris and Spain, where he pauses to learn about the art of bullfighting and to experience Pamplona during the feria and the infamous running of the bulls. He visits Venice at Carnival time, and samples the infectious madness of the unique Fallas festival in Valencia with its burning effigies and ear-splitting fireworks. Hemingway's wanderlust draws Michael to the island of Key West in Florida, once unspoilt, but where the Hemingway industry now flourishes and a look-alike competition is the high point of the centenary celebrations. It takes him fishing in the Gulf Stream, on safari in Africa -- where shooting wild animals once meant guns not cameras -- and on to the Big Country of Montana and Wyoming, where the world-famous author escaped from the pressures of fame. In each location, Basil Pao's evocative photographs capture the mood and local color, and site Michael securely in Hemingway's world. The text is a wonderful exploration of period and place, full of wit and humor, and gives us a fascinating insight into the extraordinary mind and constant, restless perambulations of one of the twentieth-century's greatest, most colorful legends.

    In Unruly Places, Alastair Bonnett goes to some of the most unexpected, offbeat places in the world to reinspire our geographical imagination.Bonnett’s remarkable tour includes moving villages, secret cities, no man’s lands, and floating islands. He explores places as disorienting as Sandy Island, an island included on maps until just two years ago despite the fact that it never existed. Or Sealand, an abandoned gun platform off the English coast that a British citizen claimed as his own sovereign nation, issuing passports and crowning his wife as a princess. Or Baarle, a patchwork of Dutch and Flemish enclaves where walking from the grocery store’s produce section to the meat counter can involve crossing national borders.An intrepid guide down the road much less traveled, Bonnett reveals that the most extraordinary places on earth might be hidden in plain sight, just around the corner from your apartment or underfoot on a wooded path. Perfect for urban explorers, wilderness ramblers, and armchair travelers struck by wanderlust, Unruly Places will change the way you see the places you inhabit.

    A gifted storyteller and consummate historian, Winchester sets the great blue sea's epic narrative against the backdrop of mankind's intellectual evolution, telling not only the story of an ocean, but the story of civilization. Fans of Winchester's Krakatoa, The Man Who Loved China, and The Professor and the Madman will love this masterful, penetrating, and resonant tale of humanity finding its way across the ocean of history.

    From the earliest whispers of eternal evil in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, vampire tales flourished through the centuries and around the globe, fueled by superstition, sexual mystery, fear of disease and death, and the nagging anxiety that demons lurk everywhere.In Vampire Forensics, Mark Jenkins probes vampire legend to tease out the historical truths enshrined in the tales of terror: sherds of Persian pottery depicting blood-sucking demons; the amazing recent discovery by National Geographic archaeologist Matteo Borrini of a 16th-century Venetian grave of a plague victim and suspected vampire; and the Transylvanian castle of "Vlad the Impaler," whose bloodthirsty cruelty remains unsurpassed.Jenkins navigates centuries of lore and legend, adding new chapters to the chronicle and weaving an irresistibly seductive blend of superstition, psychology, and science sure to engross everyone from Anne Rice's countless readers to serious students of archaeology and mythology.

    From ancient and medieval philosophers such as Confucius and Thomas Aquinas, to revolutionary thought leaders such as Thomas Jefferson and Leon Trotsky, to the voices who have shaped modern politics today -- Mao Zedong, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, and more -- "The Politics Book" clearly and simply explains more than 100 groundbreaking ideas in the history of political thought.With easy-to-follow graphics, succinct quotations, and accessible text, "The Politics Book" is an essential reference for students and anyone wondering how politics works.

    His travels took him from the hidden pockets of his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to Tanzania’s utter beauty and the stunning desert solitude of Oman’s Empty Quarter—and many places beyond.In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favorite places—in his own words. Featuring essential advice on how to get there, what to eat, where to stay and, in some cases, what to avoid, World Travel provides essential context that will help readers further appreciate the reasons why Bourdain found a place enchanting and memorable.Supplementing Bourdain’s words are a handful of essays by friends, colleagues, and family that tell even deeper stories about a place, including sardonic accounts of traveling with Bourdain by his brother, Chris; a guide to Chicago’s best cheap eats by legendary music producer Steve Albini, and more. Additionally, each chapter includes illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook.For veteran travelers, armchair enthusiasts, and those in between, World Travel offers a chance to experience the world like Anthony Bourdain.

    The result is an extraordinary and indelible portrait of the modern Southwest in which Preston retraces Coronado's route, wandering over much of the "real West", fast vanishing under the corrosive tide of modern progress. Maps.