The enthralling and often harrowing history of the adventurerswho searched for the Northwest Passage, the holy grail ofnineteenth-century British exploration. After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, theBritish took it upon themselves to complete something they had beentrying to do since the sixteenth century: find the fabled NorthwestPassage, a shortcut to the Orient via a sea route over northernCanada. For the next thirty-five years the British Admiralty sentout expedition after expedition to probe the ice-bound waters ofthe Canadian Arctic in search of a route, and then, after 1845, tofind Sir John Franklin, the Royal Navy hero who led the last ofthese Admiralty expeditions and vanished into the maze of channels,sounds, and icy seas with two ships and 128 officers and men. In The Man Who Ate His Boots, Anthony Brandt tells the wholestory of the search for the Northwest Passage, from its beginningsearly in the age of exploration through its development into aBritish nation

Now comprising 25 nations and 450 million citizens, the EU hasmore people, more wealth, and more votes on every internationalbody than the United States. It eschews military force but offersguaranteed health care and free university educations. And the new"United States of Europe" is determined to be a superpower. Tracingthe EU’s emergence from the ruins of World War II and its influenceeverywhere from international courts to supermarket shelves, T. R.Reid explores the challenge it poses to American political andeconomic supremacy. The United States of Europe is essentialreading.

In June, 1944, American and Japanese carrier fleets made theirway through the Philippine Sea, both hoping to take control of thevital Marianas Islands. When they met, they embarked upon a navalengagement that escalated into the most spectacular aircraftcarrier battle in history. Here is the true account of the battle,told from both sides-by those who were there. Drawing upon numerousinterviews as well as official sources, Clash of theCarriers is an unforgettable testimonial to the bravery ofthose who fought and those who died in a battle that will never beforgotten.

The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir that inspiredthe film October Sky, Rocket Boys is a uniquelyAmerican memoir--a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at thedawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of agroup of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outerspace . . . and who made those dreams come true. With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickampaints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia miningtown of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, whenanything was possible, even in a company town that swallowed itsmen alive. A story of romance and loss, of growing up and gettingout, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a chronicle oftriumph--at once exquisitely written and marvelouslyentertaining. Now with 8 pages of photographs.

The Flickering Mind, by National Magazine Award winner ToddOppenheimer, is a landmark account of the failure of technology toimprove our schools and a call for renewed emphasis on what reallyworks. American education faces an unusual moment of crisis. For decades,our schools have been beaten down by a series of curriculum fads,empty crusades for reform, and stingy funding. Now education andpolitical leaders have offered their biggest and most expensivepromise ever—the miracle of computers and the Internet—at a cost ofapproximately $70 billion just during the decade of the 1990s.Computer technology has become so prevalent that it is transformingnearly every corner of the academic world, from our efforts toclose the gap between rich and poor, to our hopes for schoolreform, to our basic methods of developing the human imagination.Technology is also recasting the relationships that schools strikewith the business community, changing public beliefs about thedemands of tomorrow’s working world, and reframin

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author RickBragg lends his remarkable narrative skills to the story of themost famous POW this country has known. In I Am a Soldier, Too , Bragg let’s Jessica Lynch tell thestory of her capture in the Iraq War in her own words--not thesensationalized ones of the media's initial reports. Here we seehow a humble rural upbringing leads to a stint in the military, oneof the most exciting job options for a young person in Palestine,West Virginia. We see the real story behind the ambush in the IraqiDesert that led to Lynch's capture. And we gain new perspective onher rescue from an Iraqi hospital where she had been receivingcare. Here Lynch’s true heroism and above all, modesty, is allowedto emerge, as we're shown how she managed her physical recoveryfrom her debilitating wounds and contended with themisinformation--both deliberate and unintended--surrounding herhighly publicized rescue. In the end, what we see is a uniquelyAmerican story of courage and true

In Strength in What Remains , Tracy Kidder gives us thestory of one man’s inspiring American journey and of the ordinarypeople who helped him, providing brilliant testament to the powerof second chances. Deo arrives in the United States from Burundi insearch of a new life. Having survived a civil war and genocide, helands at JFK airport with two hundred dollars, no English, and nocontacts. He ekes out a precarious existence delivering groceries,living in Central Park, and learning English by readingdictionaries in bookstores. Then Deo begins to meet the strangerswho will change his life, pointing him eventually in the directionof Columbia University, medical school, and a life devoted tohealing. Kidder breaks new ground in telling this unforgettablestory as he travels with Deo back over a turbulent life and showsus what it means to be fully human.

Good-bye, Old School. Hello, Bold School! In 2005, Maya Frost and her husband sold everything and left theirsuburban American lifestyle behind in order to have an adventureabroad. The tricky part: they had to shepherd their four teenagedaughters through high school and into college. This hilarious andconspiratorial how-to handbook describes the affordable,accessible, and stunningly advantageous options they stumbled uponthat any American student can leverage to get an outrageouslyrelevant global education. Ready to ditch the drama of the traditional hypercompetitiveSAT/AP/GPA path? Meet the bold American students who arecatapulting into the global economy at twenty with a red-hotcollege diploma, sizzling 21st-century skills, a blazing sense ofdirection–and no debt. You’ll discover: ? the one thing preventing your student from blasting forward ? why Advanced Placement isn’t so advanced ? why international programs fail to provide a truly globaleducation ? the most critical time for your student to st

Eugene Pogany's father and uncle, identical twins, were bornin Hungary of Jewish parents but raised by them as devout Catholicconverts until World War II unraveled their family. Miklos, theauthor's father, was sent to Bergen-Belsen, a hell that led him todenounce Christian passivity in the face of the Holocaust andreturn to the Judaism of his birth. Gyorgy, a Catholic priest, wassheltered from the war in an Italian monastery by the renowned andsaintly friar Padre Pio. Their mother, also interned as a Jew,walked into the Auschwitz gas chamber holding a crucifix to herbreast. In My Brother's Image eloquently portrays how the Holocaustdestroyed these brothers' close childhood bond. Each believing theother a traitor to their family's faith, they remained estrangedeven after emigrating to America, where they lived and worked onlymiles from each other. Filled with extraordinary scenes such asMiklos's Passover celebration with fellow prisoners in the camp,this tragic memoir encapsulates the drama of a f

A revealing insider's look at one of Hollywood's most prominent, private, and notoriously difficult directors; at the way the film business works; and at the Washington/Hollywood connection. JFK, Nixon, Oliver Stone and Me is the funny, thoughtful memoir of an accomplished former Congressional staffer who left D.C. for Hollywood and a job with Oliver Stone, hoping to help make politically engaged films and a difference, and found himself instead in a wildly dysfunctional universe ruled by greed, paranoia, narcissism, competition, alcohol and drugs. After finishing law school, Eric Hamburg became an unusually effective young staffer on Capitol Hill-convincing his boss, Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, to submit a bill that would release the House's closely held files on the John F. Kennedy assassination investigation, one of Hamburg's own pet obsessions. This led to his meeting Oliver Stone and soon-much to his own surprise-Hamburg found swimming amongst the sneakiest of Hollywood sharks. Hamburg describes his fa

The Tin Ticket takes readers to the dawn of thenineteenth century and into the lives of three women arrested andsent into suffering and slavery in Australia and Tasmania-wherethey overcame their fates unlike any women in the world. It alsotells the tale of Elizabeth Gurney Fry, a Quaker reformer whotouched all their lives. Ultimately, this is a story of women who,by sheer force of will, became the heart and soul of a newnation.

An absolutely wonderful book. --Russell Baker "Rick Bragg writes like a man on fire. And All Over but theShoutin' is a work of art. While reading this book, I fell in lovewith Rick Bragg's mother, Margaret Bragg, a hundred times. I feltlike I was reading one of the prophets in the Old Testament whenreading parts of this book. I thought of Melville, I thought ofFaulkner. Because I love the English language, I knew I was readingone of the best books I've ever read. By explaining his life to theworld, Rick Bragg explained part of my life to me. You feel thingsin every line this man writes. His sentences bleed on you. I weptwhen the book ended. I never met Rick Bragg in my life, but Icalled him up and told him he'd written a masterpiece, and I sentflowers to his mother." --Pat Conroy "Searingly honest, beautifully written, All Over but the Shoutin'is perhaps the most courageous thing Pulitzer Prize-winningjournalist Rick Bragg has ever written. Making his reputation on

Welcome to a world set to the ever-changing rhythms of an artist's life. Since childhood,Jewel has turned to her own short stories,vivid narratives,and starkly honest writings to revisit the past,chronicle the many characters she's encountered,and trace the intricate,unpredictable patterns of her days,In Chasing Down the Dawn,recording artist,actress,and bestselling author Jewel opens her intimate journals to create a vivid montage of the people,places,realtionships,and passages that colored the life she came from and marked the last magical,turbulent and ultimately transformational yera. Drawn from her remarkable chronicle of life on the road during the Spirit World Tour,this unforgettable collectiion of freeze frames captures unusual images form Jewel's childhood in Alaska,her beginnings as a struggling artist,and her challenges as a daughter,sister,and woman Jewel paints an unblinkingly honest picture of the exceptional journey that carried her to the world's stage Here,as if pulled from

The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine.The tragedy is that my story could have been his. Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year ofeach other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimoreneighborhoods and had difficult childhoods; both hung out on streetcorners with their crews; both ran into trouble with the police.How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decoratedveteran, White House Fellow, and business leader, while the otherended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence? Wes Moore,the author of this fascinating book, sets out to answer thisprofound question. In alternating narratives that take readers fromheart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, TheOther Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys tryingto find their way in a hostile world.