Most Wanted Killer


Robert Scott - 2010
      Jesse James Hollywood grew up in LA’s upscale West Hills with every imaginable privilege. By the age of nineteen, he owned a spacious house, a tricked-out car, and a closet full of designer clothes. His high-flying lifestyle was bankrolled by his chosen career: drug dealing.   In 2000, Ben Markowitz, another teen from a “good family,” found himself with a dope tab he couldn’t pay. A standoff between dealer and druggie exploded when Hollywood, along with two young accomplices, spotted Ben’s brother, Nick (15), walking near his parents’ home. Witnesses saw the three men attack Nick, then shove him into a van and drive off. But assault and kidnapping were only the beginning . . .   On the last night of Nick’s life, he was taken to an isolated area outside Santa Barbara known as the Lizard’s Mouth. There, he was shot to death and buried in a shallow grave. But the story was far from over. Because mastermind Jesse James, like his namesake, knew how to run and hide. With his handsome face at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted list, he lived in luxury—until the long arm of the law reached out to pull him back home for justice.

Corners: Voices on Change


Amy Lou Jenkins - 2018
    In Corners: Voices on Change, writers find a way through changes. Their literary essays offer honesty, comfort and humor. Tracing their stories helps us to process our own changing lives. Be inspired by thoughtful lives as the writers— - Deal with grief and loss- Reject antiquated patterns of prejudice and selfishness- Get fired- Engage in War- Experience disappointment in God- Find their voice- Say “no”- Navigate the ubiquitous anxiety of loving a recovering addict- Save themselves from disappearing into marriage or parenthood- Discover lynchpins in family and culture- Choose a new religion and choose to love within the backlash- Learn to love a Trump-voting spouse when it seems a betrayal- Recreate a great life when the body, brain, or life circumstance won’t return to the old normal- Accept responsibilities, truths, and realities- Celebrate differencesThese voices don’t prescribe a singular path to self-actualization. That would be a lie. We all face corners. We have to turn. We must make accommodations, or we get stuck clinging to beliefs and ways of life that can no longer sustain us. The beauty in these very human stories is laden with honesty, triumph, humor, resignation, comfort and insight. The cumulative effect of these personal stories is even greater than the sum of the parts. Readers experience the gallant pursuit of managing responses to change. Writers celebrate and lament the past, but don’t cling to it. They find a new normal. They strive. They accept.

60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Salt Lake City: Including Ogden, Provo, and the Uintas


Greg Witt - 2008
    It contains meticulous trail descriptions that range from comfortable strolls for families to difficult treks for those looking for a challenging workout. Extensive key-at-a-glance information makes it easier to choose a hike based on length, difficulty, or scenery. A helpful list of hikes in the front of the book highlights those with special interests — best hikes for children, scenic hikes, hikes good for wildlife viewing, best hikes for runners, and more. Each hike report includes commentary on trailside geology, flowers, and wildlife. Historical notes provide fascinating details about early miners, trailblazers, the Pony Express, and Mormon pioneers. Whether lacing up boots, stepping into sneakers or strapping on snowshoes, Salt Lake City is a premier destination for outdoor adventure.

In the Hamptons: My Fifty Years with Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires, and Celebrities


Dan Rattiner - 2008
    As the editor and publisher of the area’s popular free newspaper, Dan’s Papers, Dan Rattiner, has been covering the daily triumphs, community intrigues, and larger-than-life personalities for nearly fifty years.A colorful insider’s account of life, love, scandal, and celebrity, In the Hamptons is an intimate portrait of a place and the people who formed and transformed it, from former residents like Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning, colorful locals like bar owner Bobby Van and shark fisherman Frank Mundus (who the character Quinn from Jaws was based on), and literary figures like John Steinbeck and Truman Capote, to present-day stars like Bianca Jagger and Billy Joel. An insider who lived there—as well as a Jewish outsider amid the WASP contingent—Rattiner both revels in and is rattled by all he witnesses and records in one of the world’s most famous places. With dry wit and genuine affection, he shares a story of the Hamptons that few know, one defined by the artists, painters, fishermen, farmers, dreamers, hangers-on, celebrities, and billionaires who live and play there.

Alone on the Wall


Alex Honnold - 2015
    Already one of the most famous adventure athletes in the world, Honnold has now been hailed as "the greatest climber of all time" (Vertical magazine).Alone on the Wall recounts the most astonishing achievements of Honnold’s extraordinary life and career, brimming with lessons on living fearlessly, taking risks, and maintaining focus even in the face of extreme danger. Now Honnold tells, for the first time and in his own words, the story of his 3 hours and 56 minutes on the sheer face of El Cap, which Outside called "the moon landing of free soloing…a generation-defining climb. Bad ass and beyond words…one of the pinnacle sporting moments of all time."

The Missing Beaumont Children: 50 Years of Mystery and Misery


Michael Madigan - 2015
    A crime so shocking that it has often been described as a defining moment in this country's history.After 50 years of intense police investigation the whereabouts of Jane (9), Arnna (7) and Grant Beaumont (4) is still a mystery; Australia's most famous unsolved crime.On the morning of January 26, 1966 the three children set off from their Somerton Park home to Glenelg Beach on a bus to enjoy a brief excursion at Adelaide's most popular beach only a few kilometres away. Apart from a brief sighting from the Beaumont family's postman early on that afternoon, there have been no other sightings of the children since.The 'mystery' of the children's disappearance has often overshadowed the 'misery' the Beaumont parents have had to endure. This book takes the reader inside the trauma of Nancy and Grant; from the panic and heartbreaking first few days to the utter despair in later years.Only seven years after the Beaumont disappearance, two girls Joanne Ratcliffe (11) and Kirste Gordon (4) were abducted from Adelaide Oval during a football match. Were the two abductions connected? How could they not be connected?Author Michael Madigan delves into the sordid world of the numerous 'persons of interest' who have at times been suspects in this case and forensically answers the question 'who could do such a thing?'

Together on Top of the World: The Remarkable Story of the First Couple to Climb the Fabled Seven Summits


Phil Ershler - 2007
    It is the tale of two people who came together to change each other's lives, about things that should never have happened but did, and about the dreams that come true as a result.

Free Roll


Brandt Tobler - 2017
    This book is written by a stand-up comedian that takes you through tragedy after tragedy on its path to hilarity. Will it make you laugh? Eventually. Will it make you cry? Probably. But the hope is that it will also make you smile, dream, and reflect, while simultaneously inspiring you to never stop chasing your dreams (even if your very own family is constantly trying to derail them). Brandt tells his life story with candor, detailing the many pit stops, wrong turns, crazy connections, and lucky breaks he experienced along the way to his comedy career, all while trying to balance a toxic relationship with his jailbird dad. Brandt's storytelling will make you laugh (it better because that's his job!) and believe, as he does, that when it comes to defining family, blood isn't always thicker than water.

The Box Wine Sailors: Misadventures of a Broke Young Couple at Sea


Amy McCullough - 2015
    Their experience included reading a few books, watching a couple of instructional videos, and sailing once a week for a year. They were land-lubberly, middle-class twentysomethings, audacious and in love. All they wanted was to be together and do something extraordinary. They quit their jobs, bought a boat that was categorically considered "too small" for ocean sailing, and left Portland, Oregon for the Sea of Cortez.The Box Wine Sailors tells the true story of a couple's ramshackle trip down the coast, with all the exulting highs and terrifying lows of sailing a small boat on the Pacific. From nearly being rammed by a pair of whales on Thanksgiving morning and the terrifying experience of rounding Punta Gorda—hanging on to the mast for dear life and looking about at what seemed like the apocalypse—to having their tiller snap off while accidentally surfing coastal breakers and finding ultimate joy in a $5 Little Caesar's pizza. It also tells the story of two very normal people doing what most people only dream of, settling the argument that if you want something bad enough you can make it happen.

Ascent into Hell


Fergus White - 2017
     What starts with a trouble-free trek into the Nepalese highlands explodes into a gripping tale of hardship, peril, and adversity. Pushed beyond their physical and mental limits, climbers drop by the wayside. Their primal instincts for survival battle with their dogged resolve to drag themselves to the top of the world. But the focus remains: battle to the summit, and if successful, somehow get back down again. White plunges the reader into a land of subzero temperatures, asphyxiating air, and ever increasing danger. Base Camp life and the world above it come to life in this riveting, true novel. The inner workings of an Everest expedition team and what it takes to climb the highest mountain in the world are laid bare. Some return from the death zone injured. Some do not return at all. Success and failure vie for supremacy throughout. This personal, day-by-day chronicle takes the reader along every step of an Everest climb. A must for climbing enthusiasts, lovers of adventure, and adrenaline junkies; the closing chapters will leave you breathless.Alternate cover edition.ASIN: B07763H6D7

Inca Trail to Machu Picchu: Sixteen strangers and the quest for the holy Facebook photo.


Joel Paul Reisig - 2020
    

The Last Season


Eric Blehm - 2006
    Blehm narrates this true account of the disappearance and search for Randy Morgenson, a National Park Service ranger who, one morning after 28 seasons on the job, failed to answer his radio call.The introverted Morgenson was more comfortable with the natural world than with people. A gifted photographer and a lyrical writer, he dropped out of college to begin a career that would send him into the remote parts of California's Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Passionate about the mountains, he excelled at his responsibilities, which ranged from clearing away garbage left by careless campers to rescuing injured hikers. Dedicated to keeping the wilderness undisturbed, he was proud of his ability to leave no trace of himself wherever he camped.That skill would prove costly when, at age 54, he went missing. Blehm seamlessly combines a detective story with a celebration of nature that calls to mind the works of classic American writers like Thoreau and Emerson. His gripping narrative will cause readers' hearts to ache at the disappearance of this undervalued soul. But their spirits will soar at the grandeur and mysticism of nature expertly captured in its most primal state.

Loose Balls: Easy Money, Hard Fouls, Cheap Laughs, & True Love in the NBA


Jayson Williams - 2000
    From revelations about the meanest, softest, and smelliest players in the league, to Williams’s early days as a “young man with a lot of money and not a lot of sense,” to his strong and powerful views on race, privilege, and giving back, Loose Balls is a basketball book unlike any other.No inspirational pieties or chest-thumping boasting here—instead, Jayson Williams gives us the real insider tales of refs, groupies, coaches, entourages, and all the superstars, bench warmers, journeymen, clowns, and other performers in the rarefied circus that is professional basketball.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine


Julie Summers - 2000
    These two names have been inextricably joined since the two climbers disappeared on Mount Everest more than 75 years ago. Could they have been the first to reach the summit of the world's highest mountains-some 30 years earlier than Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay? Mallory's story has been well chronicled, but Irvine has always been overshadowed by his more famous climbing partner and little has been written about him. Who was he? Why was he invited by the British Everest Committee to join the 1924 expedition despite his limited mountaineering experience? And why did Mallory, 16 years his senior, select Irvine as his partner for the final assault on the summit? Julie Summers, great niece of Sandy Irvine, has been fascinated since childhood by the story of Uncle Sandy. In May 2000, Julie made an astonishing discovery: a long forgotten and unopened trunk containing Irvine's letters and photographs from Everest. Drawing on these and other material, Julie writes a revealing story of a fearless young adventurer whose life and death linked him with one of the greatest mountaineering legends of all time.

Nowhere Like Home: Misadventures in a Changing World


Jamie Alexander - 2012
    Spurred on by what he encountered among the Dayak tribespeople of the Krayan, he made a decision to discover the truth of the world around him, however uncomfortable that truth would turn out to be. From the killing fields of Indonesia to the refugee camps of Palestine, this is the remarkable true story of how this decision came to define his life, seeing him visit some of the least accessible and most volatile places on earth, often armed with little more than a set of disarmingly rosy cheeks and a quirky sense of humour. Exciting, thought-provoking, and occasionally disturbing, Nowhere Like Home forces us to question not only the reasons people travel, but also the very foundations of modern society.