In January 2003 Nicholas Sparks and his brother Micah set offon a three-week trip around the world. An adventure by any measure,this trip was especially meaningful as it marked another milestonein the life journey of two brothers who, by their early thirties,were the only surviving members of their family. As Nicholas andMicah travel the globe, from the Taj Mahal to Machu Picchu, thestory of their family slowly unfolds. Just before Nicholas'marriage he and Micah lost their mother in a horseriding accident;a week short of Nicholas' triumphant debut as a novelist with THENOTEBOOK, the brothers lost their father to a car crash, and just afew short years later they were forced to say goodbye to theirsister who died of brain cancer at the young age of 36. Against thebackdrop of the main wonders of the world the brothers cometogether to heal the wounds of this tragic legacy and maintaintheir determination to live life to its fullest.

illinois,that long slice of the heartland stretching fro lake michigan fto kentucky,may be the most american place of all.its great patriot,abraham lincoln,and its great athlete,michael jordan,stand for what s best about our country. the prairie state has some of the midwest s richest farmlnd,and,by geographic luck,illinors also has the vital metropolis of chicago.the windy city took in the continent s resources and shipped them far and wide ,becoming the nation s railroad hub and later its crossroade of the air.after the dev-astating 1871fire,visionary planners and architects like daniel burnham and louis sullivan designed boulevards,gracious parks,and beaux arts buildings thet make this one of the most livable of cities. both chicago and downstate illinois have grow them,like john dere s plow; the prairie style homes of frank lloyd wright;mail-order merchandising from sears and wards;an ener-getic,all-american literture from carl sandburg,nelson algren,gwendolyn brooks,and saul bellow;and the soulf

A million copy best-selling exploration of the animal kingdom, featuring facts and beautiful photos of over 2,000 wild animals from all habitats on planet Earth. Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide brings together the expertise of over 70 natural history specialists and the beautiful images of wildlife photographers from around the globe to illustrate, describe, and explain the incredible range of creatures in the animal kingdom. This fully up-to-date edition covers fascinating animals from across the globe including the newly discovered Skywalker Hoolock Gibbon, Jumping Spider, and Piglet Squid. From the smallest invertebrates to the mighty blue whale, Animal is a truly unrivalled look at life on planet Earth. Previous edition ISBN 9781405362337 ,

Paul Theroux celebrates fifty years of wandering the globe bycollecting the best writing on travel from the books that shapedhim, as a reader and a traveler. Part philosophical guide, partmiscellany, part reminiscence, The Tao of Travel enumerates “TheContents of Some Travelers’ Bags” and exposes “Writers Who Wroteabout Places They Never Visited”; tracks extreme journeys in“Travel as an Ordeal” and highlights some of “Travelers’ FavoritePlaces.” Excerpts from the best of Theroux’s own work areinterspersed with selections from travelers both familiar andunexpected: Vladimir Nabokov J.R.R. Tolkien Samuel Johnson Eudora Welty Evelyn Waugh Isak Dinesen Charles Dickens James Baldwin Henry David Thoreau Pico Iyer Mark Twain Anton Chekhov Bruce Chatwin John McPhee Freya Stark Peter Matthiessen Graham Greene Ernest Hemingway The Tao of Travel is a unique tribute to the pleasures and painsof travel in its golden age.

Best-selling Tolkien expert Brian Sibley (The Lord of theRings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy and The Lord of the RingsOfficial Movie Guide) presents a slipcased collection of fourfull-color, large-format maps of Tolkien's imaginary realmillustrated by John Howe, a conceptual designer for the blockbusterfilms directed by Peter Jackson. The set includes a hardcover bookdescribing in detail the importance and evolution of geographywithin Tolkien's epic fiction and four color maps presented withminimal folds, including two (Beleriand and Numenor) never beforepublished in this country.

The city long-adored for its medieval beauty, old-timey brasseries, and corner caf s has even more to offer today. In the last few years, a flood of new ideas and creative locals has infused a once-static, traditional city with a new open-minded sensibility and energy. Journalist Lindsey Tramuta offers detailed insight into the rapidly evolving worlds of food, wine, pastry, coffee, beer, fashion, and design in the delightful city of Paris. Tramuta puts the spotlight on the new trends and people that are making France s capital a more whimsical, creative, vibrant, and curious place to explore than its classical reputation might suggest. With hundreds of striking photographs that capture this fresh, animated spirit and a curated directory of Tramuta s favorite places to eat, drink, stay, and shop The New Paris shows us the storied City of Light as never before.

…immersing yourself in the sumptuous excesses of thebaroque Schloss Sch?nbrunn. …devoting an entire afternoon to coff ee and Sachertorte ina Viennese coff eehouse. …feeling the sway of the blue Danube as you cruisedownriver. …hearing the Vienna Boys’ Choir hit the high notes in theRoyal Chapel. …sampling the latest wines from the owner’s vineyard at arustic Heuriger. …falling under the spell of Klimt’s paintings andHundertwasser’s magical architecture.

The only state once recognized by the U.S.gov-ernment as an independent country.Texas is still more a nation than a state in many ways.It's larg-er than several European nations combined,with an amaxingly varied landscape and population. Since the fall of the Alamo,the Lone Star State has been the site of historic collisions:between the Old South and the New West,be-tween the Anglo culture of North America and the Hispanic culture of Latin America,between persistent small-town values and the glittering internationalism of Houston and Dallas.Yet its citizens are all Texans first,united by a storied past of epic battles,rangers and rustlers,cattle barons,wildcatters,and wheeler-dealers. The Texas Myth also embraces legendary sports teams and the fans that cheer them on; a down-home cuisine featuring Tex-Mex,chili,and rancn-style barbecue; and colorful politics across the spectrum,including outspoken liberals like Lyndon Johnson and former governor Ann Richards.Oil and cattle wealth built a legacy of ach

“oklahoma,where the wind comes sweepin down the plain!”who doesn t know the stirring lyrics to the most famous of all state songs?rodgers &hammerstein s musical captures the rambunctious frontier spirit of this state-an even more captivating place in reality. in oklahoma,the american west and the american dream come together-sometimes in one person,like will rogers,the part-cheokeejournalist and vaudevillian who became the nation s best-loved humorist.woody guthrie,our lureate of folk song,also springs from oklahoma soil,as do journalist bill moyers and apache sculptor allan houser,whose work graces the white house lawn.oklahoma helped to create the cowboy icon:on the legendary chisholm trail,in touring wild west shows ,and in the movies ,with actors roy rogers and gene auty.amerca s oil boom began her,and “black gold”built the art deco skylines of tulsa and okla-homa city.hardy survivors of the dust bowl era,oklahomans planned and built the “mother road,”route 66,and afine collection of museu