Book picks similar to
Let's Visit the Lake by Buffy Silverman
favorite-algae-books
geography
lily-reads
opl
World War II: An Interactive History Adventure (You Choose: History)
Elizabeth Raum - 2012
And YOU CHOOSE what side you're on and what you do next. The choices you make could lead you to survival or to death. In the You Choose Books set, only YOU can CHOOSE which path you take through history. What will it be?Get ready for an adventureÉ
The Last Wave
Pankaj Sekhsaria - 2014
As he observes the slow but sure destruction of everything the Jarawa require for their survival, Harish is moved by a need to understand, to do something. His unlikely friend and partner on this quest is uncle Pame, a seventy-year-old Karen boatman whose father was brought to the islands from Burma by the British in the 1920s. The islands also bring him to Seema, a 'local born'-a descendant of the convicts who were lodged in the infamous cellular jail of port Blair. Seema has seen the world, but unlike most educated islanders of her generation, she has decided to return home. Harishs earnestness, his fascination and growing love for the islands, their shared attempt to understand the Jarawa and the loss of her own first love, all draw Seema closer to Harish. As many things seem to fall in place and parallel journeys converge, an unknown contender appears-the giant tsunami of December 2004. The last wave is a story of lost loves, but also of a culture, a community, an ecology poised on the sharp edge of time and history.
Hijacked Histories
Dominic Sandbrook - 2020
We’ve all heard of fake news, but what about fake history? Dominic Sandbrook explores two and a half millennia of human history, travelling from the American Deep South to the air raid shelters of wartime Britain, to discover how the past has constantly been manipulated....3h 30min
The Boy Who Sailed Around the World Alone
Robin Lee Graham - 1973
Recounts the voyage of Robin Lee Graham, a California sixteen-year-old, who spent nearly five years sailing alone around the world.Photo Illustrated, many photos of Graham by National Geographic photographers.
A Hermit in the Himalayas: The Journal of a Lonely Exile
Paul Brunton - 1937
Good Grief: Life in a Tiny Vermont Village
Ellen Stimson - 2014
Ellen Stimson and her husband had such a wonderful time in Vermont that they wondered what living there would really be like. What if we stayed here . . . forever? So began the series of adventures and misadventures of Ellen Stimson s hilarious first book, Mud Season. Now, having settled the family in Vermont s rich muddy soil, they are faced with new challenges of raising kids in the paradise of this very small, very rural town. Good Grief tells the tales of the hopes and dreams of parents just trying to do their best and not always succeeding. Imagine being the mom of the kid who peed on his teacher s chair . . . On. Purpose. Now imagine the governor asking you about it! Good Grief is all about the inevitable moment right after somebody says, What next? Ellen Stimson s irrepressible optimism and good humor prevail as she, her two husbands, their three kids, and various much-loved pets face down real life, and even death and grieving, with good humor intact. This is life in a state where everyone knows everything, and everything is everybody s else's business."
198: How I Ran Out of Countries*
Gunnar Garfors - 2014
The globetrotter has deftly woven his experiences together into a story that takes the reader on an emotive ride and establishes a connection with him and his quest. Expect outrageous tales grouped in original themes, complete with own chapters for every country. Gunnar's adventures include several travel world records and he has been featured by CNN, Huffington Post, BBC World, Daily Mail and many more media outlets in 100+ countries. He is a travel reporter and quizmaster for Norway's biggest radio show and regularly presents at media or travel events world-wide. The author on Twitter: @garfors
Portlandness: A Cultural Atlas
David Banis - 2015
Modern cartography tells the hidden stories of Portland in these fascinating and colorful infographic maps. When mapmaking takes on nontraditional topics like patterns of graffiti, locations of strip clubs, or even which neighborhoods favor which house colors, finding your way around the city takes on a whole new meaning. Each map starts with the gathering of at least one data set about a given topic, then translating that to a visual format that blends traditional cartographic skills with modern graphic design.
Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles
Charles Fleming - 2010
That’s where William Faulkner was living when he wrote the screenplay for To Have and Have Not; that house was designed by Neutra; over there is a Schindler; that’s where Woody Guthrie lived, where Anais Nin died, and where Thelma Todd was murdered . . .Despite the fact that one of these staircases starred in an Oscar-winning short film—Laurel and Hardy’s The Music Box, from 1932—these civic treasures have been virtually unknown to most of the city’s residents and visitors. Now, Secret Stairs puts these hidden stairways back on the map, while introducing urban hikers to exciting new “trails” all around the city of Los Angeles.
London
John Escott - 1996
Each book focuses on a particular topic such as famous cities, sport, science, the environment and the media.
5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!) 2
National Geographic Kids - 2014
More exciting than a video game, this boredom-busting book is an explosion of information about sensational topics kids love: dessert, underwear, amusement parks, pirates, famous criminals, marsupials, Ancient Egypt, famous landmarks, you name it! The new 5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!) 2 has even more brain and eye candy rolled into one beautifully designed, high-octane treasure trove that captures kids' attention and keeps them yearning to learn more.
Why She Left Us
Rahna Reiko Rizzuto - 1999
Rahna Reiko Rizzuto reveals the reason for her act--and its effect on four generations of her family--in a series of alternating narratives. A son, daughter, mother, and brother all chime in, and the author's sophisticated interweaving of their tales is what gives this debut novel much of its power.Rizzuto's book includes its share of violent and disturbing incidents. A daughter helps her mother give birth on the floor of a shack; a son accompanies his senile grandfather to the toilet; a brother delivers a swift kick to his pregnant sister's belly. Yet Why She Left Us never relies on mere sensationalism. For one thing, the author's prose is strong and vivid, and she's particularly good at evoking the passage of time: "My life doesn't come to me in any order," notes one character. "Moments flip-flop, overlap--sometimes they come only in splinters." This isn't, it should be said, a big-canvas portrait of wartime life. But Rizzuto has produced a minute and successful investigation of the moments that define what a family is.That leaves the initial mystery. To her credit, Rizzuto doesn't come up with a pat solution: instead, she offers up a collage of perceptions, which fuse into a kind of answer as the story progresses. In other words, this is the latest addition to a growing canon of diplomatic, Rashomon-like novels. Why She Left Us is a true study in perspectives--and a kaleidoscopic lesson about the nature of memory and forgiveness. --Rucker Alex, Amazon.com Review
Planet Earth II
Stephen Moss - 2016
From the most desolate desert to the depths of the jungle, from blistering heat and freezing cold to perpetual darkness and deadly UV, discover how a whole host of creatures have adapted to life in the most extreme conditions. And how they compete with one another to become the largest, the fastest, the most poisonous, or most devious - all in a bid to survive.Planet Earth II includes the first in-depth look at the urban environment, and the surprising range of behaviours occurring right under our noses, as well as some previously untouched island worlds. Filmed with remarkable 5k and infra-red technology, these are the challenges, the confrontations, and the triumphs of some of the most extraordinary creatures in the natural world, told from their perspective.This is our planet, as you have never seen it before.
A Passage to Africa
George Alagiah - 2002
In vivid and evocative prose and with a fine eye for detail, Alagiah's viewpoint is spiked with the freshness of the young George on his arrival in Ghana, the wonder with which he recounts his first impressions of Africa, and the affection with which he dresses his stories of his early family life. A sense of possibility lingers, even though the book is full of uncomfortable truths. It is a book neatly balanced on his integrity and sense of obligation in his role as a writer and reporter.
Four Quarters of Light: An Alaskan Journey
Brian Keenan - 2004
And Alaska’s mesmeric wilderness has permeated Keenan’s life ever since. A short visit to Fairbanks several years ago was enough to seal his connection with the place, and he resolved to return. He eventually did so with a head full of questions about its inspiring landscape and a heart informed with his own love of the desolate places of the world. In a journey that takes him through four geographical quarters from snowmelt in May to snowfall in September, he discovers a land as fantastical as a fairy tale but whose vastness has a very peculiar type of allure. From dog-mushing on a frozen lake beneath the colors of the aurora borealis to camping in a two-dollar tent in the tundra of the Arctic Circle, from skinning hides with an aging shaman and his wife to boating in the stormy Bering Sea, and along frozen inlets to a remote Eskimo fishing camp, Keenan seeks out the ultimate wilderness experience and connects with a spectrum of wildlife, including his own “spirit bear,” all of them roamers in “The Big Lonely.” En route, he encounters hard-core survivalists who know what struggle and endurance mean from their daily battle for existence. And finally, he discovers that true wilderness is as much a state of mind as it is a place and that ultimately, to make Alaska home, one must surrender to the land.