Book picks similar to
Compass American Guides : Underwater Wonders of the National Parks : A Diving and Snorkeling Guide by Daniel Lenihan
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The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean
Susan Casey - 2010
Until recently scientists dismissed these stories—waves that high would seem to violate the laws of physics. But in the past few decades, as a startling number of ships vanished and new evidence has emerged, oceanographers realized something scary was brewing in the planet’s waters. They found their proof in February 2000, when a British research vessel was trapped in a vortex of impossibly mammoth waves in the North Sea—including several that approached 100 feet.As scientists scramble to understand this phenomenon, others view the giant waves as the ultimate challenge. These are extreme surfers who fly around the world trying to ride the ocean’s most destructive monsters. The pioneer of extreme surfing is the legendary Laird Hamilton, who, with a group of friends in Hawaii, figured out how to board suicidally large waves of 70 and 80 feet. Casey follows this unique tribe of people as they seek to conquer the holy grail of their sport, a 100-foot wave.In this mesmerizing account, the exploits of Hamilton and his fellow surfers are juxtaposed against scientists’ urgent efforts to understand the destructive powers of waves—from the tsunami that wiped out 250,000 people in the Pacific in 2004 to the 1,740-foot-wave that recently leveled part of the Alaskan coast.Like Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, The Wave brilliantly portrays human beings confronting nature at its most ferocious.
Emperors of the Deep: Sharks--The Ocean's Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood, and Most Important Guardians
William McKeever - 2019
But as Ocean Guardian founder William McKeever reveals, sharks are evolutionary marvels essential to maintaining a balanced ecosystem. We can learn much from sharks, he argues, and our knowledge about them continues to grow. The first book to reveal in full the hidden lives of sharks, Emperors of the Deep examines four species—Mako, Tiger, Hammerhead, and Great White—as never before, and includes fascinating details such as:Sharks are 50-million years older than trees;Sharks have survived five extinction level events, including the one that killed off the dinosaurs;Sharks have electroreception, a sixth-sense that lets them pick up on electric fields generated by living things;Sharks can dive 4,000 feet below the surface;Sharks account for only 6 human fatalities per year, while humans kill 100 million sharks per year.McKeever goes back through time to probe the shark’s pre-historic secrets and how it has become the world’s most feared and most misunderstood predator, and takes us on a pulse-pounding tour around the world and deep under the water’s surface, from the frigid waters of the Arctic Circle to the coral reefs of the tropical Central Pacific, to see sharks up close in their natural habitat. He also interviews ecologists, conservationists, and world-renowned shark experts, including the founders of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior, the head of the Massachusetts Shark Research Program, and the self-professed “last great shark hunter.”At once a deep-dive into the misunderstood world of sharks and an urgent call to protect them, Emperors of the Deep celebrates this wild species that hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of the ocean—if we can prevent their extinction from climate change and human hunters.
At Home with Madame Chic: Becoming a Connoisseur of Daily Life
Jennifer L. Scott - 2014
Madame Chic took Jennifer under her wing and tutored her in the secrets of how the French elevate the little things in life to the art of living.Years later, Jennifer was back in California with a husband, two young daughters, a dog, and her first home. Every day she confronted mundane duties like folding laundry and unloading the dishwasher, and she began to think about Madame Chic’s home—how the breakfast table was set beautifully the night before, the music that always played in the background, the calm of Madame and Monsieur Chic’s ritual cocktail hour together. Jennifer wanted that life. She decided to see what would happen if she didn’t perform her chores impatiently or mindlessly, if, instead, she could live like Madame Chic.At Home with Madame Chic reveals the secrets to having a happy, fulfilling, and passionate life at home. Jennifer explains the morning send-off need not be chaotic, it’s possible to look stylish with minimal time and effort, a little forethought makes it possible to serve a home-cooked dinner every night, and details like music and scented candles can set the tone for the whole family’s evening. Organized by the pleasures that can be found throughout the day, this charming, helpful book is full of ideas, playlists, recipes, beauty routines, and advice that can turn an irritating day into an enjoyable experience.
Last Horizons: Hunting, Fishing & Shooting On Five Continents
Peter Hathaway Capstick - 1988
In this, the first of a two-volume collection of his hunting, fishing, and shooting tales, you'll find twenty-four examples of his keen eye and steady hand with rifle, shotgun, bow, and typewriter.The critically acclaimed successor to Hemingway and Robert Ruark repeatedly put himself in harm's way and writes about close scrapes with his trademark wit and dash. He tells what it's like to be in the path of an express train with Horns--the Cape buffalo; describes the heart-stopping sensation of sharing the immediate bush with several sickle-clawed lions that most certainly were prone to argue; and recounts his adventures bow-fishing for exotic species in the piranha-filled rivers of Brazil. Capstick's experiences, painfully gained (and almost lost) with the most dangerous of game, are the yardsticks against which most modern exotic and hunting adventures are gauged. The finely rendered drawings by Dino Paravano do justice to the text.
A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind
Shoukei Matsumoto - 2011
In this Japanese bestseller a Buddhist monk explains the traditional meditative techniques that will help cleanse not only your house - but your soul.Live clean. Feel calm. Be happy.We remove dust to sweep away our worldly cares. We live simply and take time to contemplate the self, mindfully living each moment. It's not just monks that need to live this way. Everyone in today's busy world needs it.In Japan, cleanliness is next to enlightenment. This bestselling guide by a Zen Buddhist monk draws on ancient traditions to show you how a few simple changes to your daily habits - from your early morning routine to preparing food, from respecting the objects around you to working together as a team -will not only make your home calmer and cleaner, but will leave you feeling refreshed, happier and more fulfilled.
Sense of a Quiet
Deepak Kripal - 2022
Rohan, their common friend from medical college, visits Haridwar to stay with his best friend Milind for a few days. Diya doesn't like Rohan; she sees him as an impractical and impulsive person who lacks motive in life.Facing an impending divorce, Rohan wants to rejig his life, to work out the missing pieces and figure out what he really wants from life. In Haridwar, Rohan makes new acquaintances and friends – a rickshaw-wala, a maid and a rude elderly retired army man. Meanwhile, Milind gets trapped in a corruption scam, and Diya finds herself in a situation that she does not want to share with Milind and ends up in a further conflict with Rohan. Rohan gets into an altercation with an MLA’s aide; his stay in Haridwar seems to have set off a chain of events that will turn the relationship between Diya, Rohan and Milind into a quagmire spiraling completely out of control before they know it.Where will the cycle of life take them to? As they sit on the bank of Ganges for redemption, what does destiny have in store for them - Scars or Deliverance?
The Counsellor
Gillian Jackson - 2012
Struggling to make sense of her grief, it becomes evident that a complete change and a positive focus is the only thing which will help her to carry on with life. Training as a therapeutic counsellor provides this focus, bringing her into contact with people who desperately need her help. Julie and her children are living in fear of an abusive husband, Janet is crumbling under the weight of a secret she has kept for over forty years, and Karen has never recovered from her mother’s violent death. Maggie is drawn into her client’s problems as she seeks to empower them to move on with their lives. And then she is faced with her own ethical dilemma when she meets Peter...
Trapped in the Game (The Streets Won't Let Me Go Book 1)
Tamicka Higgins - 2017
And Black knows that better than anyone. After a drug heist gone bad, Black and Buzzy are hellbent on selling off all the pills they thought they'd gotten away with. All they want now is to unload the narcotics and live the high life by spending the cash and getting out of the business. But that's easier said than done...The two men they lifted the drugs from are making demands, and Black and Buzzy can't turn away. Now, Black is faced with a new challenge, falling for Layla, a chick he just can't have. After all, she's married to the man who's doing time for Black's heist. Black can't possibly take everything from him. With the cops on his tail, a desire to bail on the game, and a guilty conscience, Black must act carefully. But will his next move involve another man's wife?
Til Death We Do Part, Too
Bruno Beaches - 2021
She seems wonderful, and it is love at first sight, and they marry quickly. However, not all is rosy in the garden, and a lifetime’s baggage rears its ugly head. Pablo’s ex-wife re-establishes contact with him, and he desperately seeks to exorcise the demons of that betrayal and divorce, but he gets drawn into a double life. Then, one shocking day, Hellion goes to work, and inexplicably, and without warning, fails to return home. Now he has to try to understand another devastating, bewildering calamity.Til Death We Do Part, Too is a story that scrutinises the impact of unfinished business, baggage, emotional damage, and lingering love. It balances heart-breaking loss with resilience, disorientation with hope, and desperation and bitterness with true enduring love and understanding. There is much insight into the reality of relationships and the frailty of the human psyche. It is told with immense depth of feeling, humour, and faith.
Inside-Out Simplicity
Joshua Becker - 2011
“Inside-Out Simplicity: Life-Changing Keys to your Most Important Relationships” goes beyond external fixes to our complicated lives. Instead, this book dares to focus on the very heart and soul of a simplified life.It is based on the truth that a simplified lifestyle begins in a person’s soul and will help the reader find an inside-out simplicity by focusing on life-changing principles in their most important relationships.Healthy relationships are absolutely essential for simplicity. And healthy relationships always flow from the inside-out.It is meant to challenge you.It is meant to encourage you.It is meant to inspire you.It is destined to help you find a simpler way of life.Some of the topics and principles covered in the book will help you:Discover why healthy relationships are essential to a simplified life.Live intentionally by embracing contentment, gratitude, and humility.Promote generosity, kindness, service, and forgiveness as a way of life.Find greater simplicity in your marriage by focusing on the essential building blocks.Be intentional in your dealings with your children and family.
God and the Atom
Victor J. Stenger - 2013
Originating separately in both ancient Greece and India, the concept of the atom persisted for centuries, despite often running afoul of conventional thinking. Until the twentieth century, no direct evidence for atoms existed. Today it is possible to actually observe atoms using a scanning tunneling microscope. The book begins with the story of the earliest atomists - the ancient Greek philosophers Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus, and the Latin poet Lucretius. As the author notes, the idea of elementary particles as the foundation of reality had many opponents throughout history - from Aristotle to Christian theologians and even some nineteenth-century chemists and philosophers. While theists today accept that the evidence for the atomic theory of matter is overwhelming, they reject the atheistic implications of that theory.
Xoc: The Journey of a Great White
Matt Dembicki - 2012
Along its journey, the 17-foot shark encounters natural prey and predators--from skittish seals to brazen orcas--as well as man-made impediments that threaten not only the giant fish, but the balance of ocean's ecology.
The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of the Planet's Great Ocean Voyagers
Adam Nicolson - 2017
Their numbers are in freefall, dropping by nearly 70 percent in the last sixty years, a billion fewer now than in 1950. Extinction stalks the ocean, and there is a danger that the hundred-million-year-old cries of a seabird colony, rolling around in the bays and headlands of high latitudes, will this century become but a memory.
Shark Trouble
Peter Benchley - 2002
The bestselling author of Jaws, The Deep, and other works draws on more than three decades of experience to share information about sharks and other marine animals.“Shark attacks on human beings generate a tremendous amount of media coverage,” Benchley writes, “partly because they occur so rarely, but mostly, I think, because people are, and always have been, simultaneously intrigued and terrified by sharks. Sharks come from a wing of the dark castle where our nightmares live—deep water beyond our sight and understanding—and so they stimulate our fears and fantasies and imaginations.”Benchley describes the many types of sharks (including the ones that pose a genuine threat to man), what is and isn’t known about shark behavior, the odds against an attack and how to reduce them even further—all reinforced with the lessons he has learned, the mistakes he has made, and the personal perils he has encountered while producing television documentaries, bestselling novels, and articles about the sea and its inhabitants. He tells how to swim safely in the ocean, how to read the tides and currents, what behavior to avoid, and how to survive when danger suddenly strikes. He discusses how to tell children about sharks and the sea and how to develop, in young and old alike, a healthy respect for the ocean.As Benchley says, “The ocean is the only alien and potentially hostile environment on the planet into which we tend to venture without thinking about the animals that live there, how they behave, how they support themselves, and how they perceive us. I know of no one who would set off into the jungles of Malaysia armed only with a bathing suit, a tube of suntan cream, and a book, and yet that’s precisely how we approach the oceans.” No longer. Not after you’ve read Shark Trouble.From the Hardcover edition.