Book picks similar to
Mermaids by Lori Hile


nonfiction
mermaids
tristate
childrens-nonfiction

I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History's Strangest Cures


Carlyn Beccia - 2010
    They tried wild things like drinking a glass full of millipedes or putting some mustard on one's head.  Some of the cures worked, and some of them…well, let’s just say that millipedes, living or dead, are not meant to be ingested.Carlyn Beccia takes readers on a colorful and funny medical mystery tour to discover that while times may have changed, many of today’s most reliable cure-alls have their roots in some very peculiar practices, and so relevant connections can be drawn from what they did then to what we do now.

Sox and the City: A Fan's Love Affair with the White Sox from the Heartbreak of '67 to the Wizards of Oz


Richard Roeper - 2006
    An account of what it was like to grow up a White Sox fan in a Cubs nation, this title covers the history of the organisation, from the heartbreak of 1967 and the South-Side Hit Men to the disco demolition and the magical 2005 season when they became world champions.

HARD ROLL: A Paramedic’s Perspective of Life and Death in New Orleans


Jon McCarthy - 2017
    He chronicles some of the most formative calls of his career in this autobiography that reads like crime fiction. McCarthy demonstrates with detail and clarity that the difficult choice is often the right choice. While not for the faint of heart, each entry in this collection provides poignant insight into the bonds between medics and the people and city they serve.

Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems


Efraim Turban - 1998
    

The Story of Google


Sara Gilbert - 2008
    A look at the origins, leaders, growth, and products of Google, the Internet company that was founded in 1998 and today provides the worlds most frequently used online search engine

Frida Kahlo: An Illustrated Biography


Zena Alkayat - 2016
    This beautifully illustrated biography is full of colorful details that illuminate the woman behind the artwork, including excerpts from Kahlo's personal letters and diaries on her childhood dreams of becoming a doctor, the accident that changed the course of her life, and her love affairs with famous artists. Featuring handwritten text alongside lovely illustrations in a charming case with foil stamping and debossed details, Library of Luminaries: Frida Kahlo provides a captivating window into the vibrant life, work, and creative vision of the beloved Mexican artist.

Together: A Journey for Survival


Ann Arnold - 2016
    Married to the man of her dreams, mother to two beautiful children, and a member of one of the most respected families in town; she had it all. The year was 1939, and the world was about to change. In a heartbreaking instant, she had to trade her life of security, family, and simple pleasures--for one of unspeakable loneliness, hardship, and danger. Nothing more than hunted prey, she relied on her inner strength and indomitable will to keep her children alive. But would it be enough? How far would she have to go, and did she have the resolve to get there? One thing she knew for sure ...she and her children would live or die one way …. TOGETHER. Manek was six years old when his world began to collapse. At first, his young eyes failed to see it, but reality came quickly into focus, when his loving gentle mother was forced to beat him in order to save his life. That is when he realized the Nazis wanted to kill him. Suddenly thrust into a new role as man of the house, would he be able to help keep his family safe? Was he strong enough to protect them? He knew only one thing ... they would survive if they could stay …TOGETHER. In Together: A Journey for Survival, Ann Arnold shares her family's journey through Poland's countryside as a war of nations thunders around them. The story displays the magnificent strength of a mother's love and the incredible courage of good people during the worst of times. "An important work. Ann Arnold's effort to both tell their tale of her family's survival during the Holocaust while being a part of encouraging the next generation to embrace tolerance is inspiring." -Michael Cohen, The Simon Wiesenthal Center "A fascinating story that takes a reader inside an already wounded family toiling through horrific difficulty in the pursuit of life itself. .. it forces readers to ask themselves if they could endure a struggle or whether they might support another person in a life or death battle. This angle makes the book valuable for teachers to use and beneficial for students to read at the high school level.” -Lawrence M. Glaser, N.J. Commission on Holocaust Education “Incredible Story” –Northern Valley Press "Arnold’s perspective is colored not only by those non-Jews who saved her father’s family but also by her experience visiting Brzostek as an adult." –New Jersey Jewish News

Vinny the Soccer Playing Dinosaur (Alfred the Dinosaur Book 2)


Brandon Cullum - 2016
     His playing time soon ends when he finds himself kicked off the team after not being able to measure up.Join Vinny as he sets off on an adventure to discover his true potential, encountering an old sabertooth tiger, a T-Rex and his own self-doubt along the way.Will Vinny rejoin the pack? Will Vinny find his footing and discover his true potential?  Find out in this colorful, rhyming, bed-time adventure **Vinny the Soccer Playing Dinosaur is Book 2 in the Alfred the Dinosaur series, but can be read as a stand-alone story Book 1: Alfred the Time Traveling Dinosaur Book 2: Vinny the Soccer Playing Velocripator **Other books by Brandon Cullum The Alphabet Fruit ABC's Buy Vinny the Soccer Playing Dinosaur today to read a bed-time story where heroes come in all sizes!

The Jump: Sebastian Telfair and the High-Stakes Business of High School Ball


Ian O'Connor - 2005
    One of the most hyped high school players of all time, with a $20 million Adidas deal in hand, Sebastian found himself in the same position as NBA superstars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, both of whom shot to stardom without playing a day of college ball. THE JUMP offers an inside view of Sebastian's journey-a rags-to-riches story of a kid from the Coney Island projects who succeeds in leaving behind the chaos, violence and economic hardship at home for a multi-million dollar life of professional ball and product endorsement. Drawing on exclusive interviews with friends, family, coaches, recruiters, agents and players, USA Today columnist Ian O'Connor offers an intimate portrait of the promising young player's senior year at Lincoln High School and explores the changing nature of basketball in America today.Sebastian Telfair exemplifies a new dynamic emerging in basketball-young, talented teenagers who skip college on the way to NBA fortune and fame. But what is this trend doing to the sport? And do the adults who have hitched their hopes on Sebastian's rising star have the young player's best interests in mind? THE JUMP dives head first into today's high-stakes, anything-goes basketball culture, examining the sneaker companies intent on securing charismatic and mediagenic players to hawk their wares; college boosters willing to break NCAA rules by offering cash incentives to lure promising players to their schools; high school administrators securing big appearance fees from promoters; agents wooing players and their families-and walking the thin line dictating amateur status rules for high school and college ball.O'Connor also delves into the dream that the NBA holds for so many families-a child drafted into the pros offers a first class ticket out of the projects. A colorful cast of characters featured in THE JUMP includes the faces shaping the sport today: Rick Pitino, head coach of the University of Louisville, who recruits Sebastian with the hope of delivering his team to an NCAA championship only to see his dreams dashed by Sebastian's decision to enter the NBA draft; Andy Miller, the agent who vies to sign up Sebastian despite Erica and Otis Telfair's reservations; Stephon Marbury, star of the New York Knicks, who sees Sebastian more as a rival than a cousin (THE JUMP delivers exclusive details on the fracture in the Marbury and Telfair relationship, including interviews with the point guards and relatives on the subject of the family feud); Sonny Vacaro, at different times the face of Nike, Adidas, and Reebok, who uses sneaker company cash to entice coaches and young players; Jay-Z, rapper and owner of Telfair's summer-league team.Under O'Connor's penetrating scrutiny, Sebastian Telfair becomes the prism through which the circus of modern basketball is explored. Can he succeed, or will he flame out-too young, too small, too unprepared? And what is this new trend in basketball doing to the athletes, to college basketball programs, to the quality of play in the NBA and to society at large? As Dave Kindred of The Sporting News states, "THE JUMP is a 21st-century thrill ride into the shadows and bright lights of a basketball culture that breaks hearts and makes superstars."

Mermaid Queen: The Spectacular True Story Of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way To Fame, Fortune & Swimsuit History!


Shana Corey - 2009
    A fun, feel-good, "underdog" story about a little-known female athlete whose derring-do transformed girls' sports.Are you brave enough to make a wave? If you love sports and people who aren't afraid to swim against the tide, Annette Kellerman and her freestyle approach to life will make your heart swell.With strokes of genius, Shana Corey and Edwin Fotheringham pool their talents to create a winning portrait of a little-known athlete, performer, and fashion revolutionary who broke records (and rules!) and dazzled the world with her splashy pluck and courage.

Landing Eagle: Inside the Cockpit During the First Moon Landing


Michael Engle - 2019
    It was a sea in name only. It was actually a bone dry, ancient dusty basin pockmarked with craters and littered with rocks and boulders. Somewhere in that 500 mile diameter basin, the astronauts would attempt to make Mankind’s first landing on the Moon. Neil Armstrong would pilot the Lunar Module “Eagle” during its twelve minute descent from orbit down to a landing. Col. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin would assist him. On the way down they would encounter a host of problems, any one of which could have potentially caused them to have to call off the landing, or, even worse, die making the attempt. The problems were all technical-communications problems, computer problems, guidance problems, sensor problems. Armstrong and Aldrin faced the very real risk of dying by the very same technical sword that they had to live by in order to accomplish the enormous task of landing on the Moon for the first time. Yet the human skills Armstrong and Aldrin employed would be more than equal to the task. Armstrong’s formidable skills as an aviator, honed from the time he was a young boy, would serve him well as he piloted Eagle down amidst a continuing series of systems problems that might have fatally distracted a lesser aviator. Armstrong’s brilliant piloting was complemented by Aldrin’s equally remarkable discipline and calmness as he stoically provided a running commentary on altitude and descent rate while handling systems problems that threatened the landing. Finally, after a harrowing twelve and a half minutes, Armstrong gently landed Eagle at “Tranquility Base”, a name he had personally chosen to denote the location of the first Moon landing. In “Landing Eagle-Inside the Cockpit During the First Moon Landing”, author Mike Engle gives a minute by minute account of the events that occurred throughout Eagle’s descent and landing on the Moon. Engle, a retired NASA engineer and Mission Control flight controller, uses NASA audio files of actual voice recordings made inside Eagle’s cockpit during landing to give the reader an “inside the cockpit” perspective on the first Moon landing. Engle’s transcripts of these recordings, along with background material on the history and technical details behind the enormous effort to accomplish the first Moon landing, give a new and fascinating insight into the events that occurred on that remarkable day fifty years ago.

Thinking Basketball


Ben Taylor - 2016
    Explore how certain myths arose while using our own cognition as a window into the game's popular narratives. New basketball concepts are introduced, such as power plays, portability and why the best player shouldn't always shoot. Discover how the box score can be misleading, why "closers" are overrated and how the outcome of a game fundamentally alters our memory. Behavioral economics, traffic paradoxes and other metaphors highlight this thought-provoking insight into the NBA and our own thinking. A must-read for any basketball fan -- you'll never view the sport, and maybe the world, the same again.

Young Einstein: From the Doxerl Affair to the Miracle Year


L. Randles Lagerstrom - 2013
    In 1905 an unknown 26-year-old clerk at the Swiss Patent Office, who had supposedly failed math in school, burst on to the scientific scene and swept away the hidebound theories of the day. The clerk, Albert Einstein, introduced a new and unexpected understanding of the universe and launched the two great revolutions of twentieth-century physics, relativity and quantum mechanics. The obscure origin and wide-ranging brilliance of the work recalled Isaac Newton’s “annus mirabilis” (miracle year) of 1666, when as a 23-year-old seeking safety at his family manor from an outbreak of the plague, he invented calculus and laid the foundations for his theory of gravity. Like Newton, Einstein quickly became a scientific icon--the image of genius and, according to Time magazine, the Person of the Century.The actual story is much more interesting. Einstein himself once remarked that “science as something coming into being ... is just as subjectively, psychologically conditioned as are all other human endeavors.” In this profile, the historian of science L. Randles Lagerstrom takes you behind the myth and into the very human life of the young Einstein. From family rifts and girlfriend troubles to financial hardships and jobless anxieties, Einstein’s early years were typical of many young persons. And yet in the midst of it all, he also saw his way through to profound scientific insights. Drawing upon correspondence from Einstein, his family, and his friends, Lagerstrom brings to life the young Einstein and enables the reader to come away with a fuller and more appreciative understanding of Einstein the person and the origins of his revolutionary ideas.About the cover image: While walking to work six days a week as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland, Einstein would pass by the famous "Zytglogge" tower and its astronomical clocks. The daily juxtaposition was fitting, as the relative nature of time and clock synchronization would be one of his revolutionary discoveries in the miracle year of 1905.

The Jersey: The All Blacks: The Secrets Behind the World's Most Successful Team


Peter Bills - 2018
     'Extremely well written. Compelling, accurate, insightful and brilliant in the way it captures the New Zealand way. - John Hart, former All Blacks coach.With a better winning record than any other sports team in history, they stand head and shoulders above their nearest rugby rivals, and go to the 2019 World Cup as back-to-back World Champions. How did a country of just 4.8 million people conquer the world?Peter Bills, who has reported on international rugby for more than 40 years, was given exclusive access to all the key figures in New Zealand rugby as he set out to understand the secrets behind the All Blacks success. From Steve Hansen to Beauden Barrett, Richie McCaw to the late Sir Colin Meads, Peter Bills talked at length with over 90 people, both in New Zealand and around the world, with intimate knowledge of what makes the All Blacks tick.This is a story of the first settlers, and the 'Originals' who forged the All Blacks legacy, right through to modern times. It draws heavily on the contributions made by all New Zealanders: players, coaches, officials, supporters and those who have worn the most recognized jersey in the world. Intrinsically, The Jersey goes to the heart of the All Blacks success. It is also an epic story of not just a rugby team but a nation, whose identities are inextricably linked. Additionally, it debates a question, terrifying for any of their opponents. Could the All Blacks get even better?

Tough Plants for Southern Gardens


Felder Rushing - 2003
    This is the book for gardeners who want plants they can plant and forget! Tough Plants for Southern Gardens is written for novice and accomplished gardeners alike, for all gardeners who value their leisure time. They also value the appearance of their home and appreciate the benefits of well-placed landscaping…however; they do not want to devote too much time to keeping it beautiful. Tough Plants for Southern Gardens includes 120 of the toughest plants for Southern gardens, including annuals, bulbs, perennials, shrubs and small trees, ornamental vines, and lawns. Each featured plant is noted for its ability to thrive with minimal care. Many of the selections can withstand drought, poor soils, and minimal (or no) pruning, while providing beauty and charm in the home landscape. Each selection provides specific information on the plant's use in the landscape, mature size, flowering characteristics (if applicable), varieties, soil preference, and propagation. Each chapter also contains informative essays covering topics such as: companion planting tips, pest avoidance, and handling invasive plants.