Travel World guide

“. . . allows readers to experience the fascination and the fear of being an F-16 fighter pilot.”–Publisher’s Weekly

“The historian and investigative reporter takes readers into the elite world of the F-16 fighter pilot, illuminating the rigorous six-month training process that prepares a select group of young people to fly this sophisticated aircraft.” –Forecast
–This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Take the best pilots. And the best teachers. Put them through a taut-nerve, adrenaline-infused training program where only a handful of mistakes will lead to dismissal. The stakes are high and few succeed.

Hand-picked, pressure-tested, and astronaut gung ho, the young pilots of Eye of the Viper are poised for the toughest assignment of their career: the exhaustive six-month training course at Arizonas Luke Air Force Base, at a cost of $2 million each. Luke, the worlds largest fighter wing, is the only F-16 fighter training base in the United States, and each year it produces one thousand pilots who will fly the F-16 from Korea to Afghanistan to Iraq.
But being among the elite pilots who are selected for the course is by no means a guarantee that they will earn the right to fly the F-16, perhaps the most agile jet fighter ever sent into combat. Only a few select individuals have what it takes.
Award-winning journalist Peter Aleshire, given unprecedented access to the pilots and teachers at Luke, provides a full blast of the rigors and intensity of the coursethe personalities, the incredible machines, the irreverence, the bravado, and the toughness, not only of the hand-picked students seeking a place in the warrior subculture, but of the veteran plots who must teach them how to stay alive.
Readers will quickly come to understand the extraordinary mental and physical demands on a modern pilotand the incredible joy and sense of freedom that makes most F-16 pilots describe their single-engine, weapons-laden, needle-nosed jet in terms that sound more like true love or helpless addiction.
Eye of the Viper is a frank, ambitious, and eminently entertaining look at the ambitions, fears, frailties, and courage that make or break the young pilots at the exquisitely sensitive controls of a $35-million jet.

Every year, 1,000 fresh potential pilots undergo the intensive, six-month, 58-flight, $2 million-a-head fighter pilot basic training, where they are pushed to the extreme limits, propelled by the desire to earn their place in a warrior subculture. From the investigative
science and medical writer, Peter A. Aleshire, comes Eye of the Viper, an intriguing book about the making of an F-16 fighter pilot.

Blending intense human drama with a wealth of information about the world’s most expensive, deadly, high-tech Air Force, the book follows a batch of fresh new recruits at Luke Air Force Base, the world’s largest fighter wing and the single most important source of fighter pilots that have made the American Air Force virtually unchallenged in the skies, as they experience the exhaustive six-month training process. Get an insider’s look at how these rookies face mental and physical demands, exhilaration and failure, joy and pain, sweat and tears while they are transformed into stealthy, fierce, American fighting machines. Each recruit is eager to climb into the jets they love at a moment’s notice and fly halfway around the world to drop laser-guided bombs down any smokestack the president specifies. However, only a few select individuals have what it takes to be dubbed “protectors of national security.” The stakes are high and only a few will succeed.

Historian and writer Peter Aleshire is a senior lecturer in the Department
of American Studies at Arizona State University West. He is contributing
editor at Phoenix Magazine and writes frequently for a variety of
magazines. He has written four history books about the Apache Wars in the
Southwest, including The Fox and the Whirlwind, Reaping the Whirlwind,
Warrior Woman, and Cochise. He spent 18 years as a science, medical and
investigative reporter at various newspapers before taking up teaching,
freelancing and writing in 1991. He has published hundreds of articles in
national and regional magazines, which have won numerous awards.

“. . . allows readers to experience the fascination and the fear of being an F-16 fighter pilot.”–Publisher’s Weekly

“The historian and investigative reporter takes readers into the elite world of the F-16 fighter pilot, illuminating the rigorous six-month training process that prepares a select group of young people to fly this sophisticated aircraft.” –Forecast
–This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Eye of the Viper: The Making of an F-16 Pilot

A Nightmare’s Prayer: A Marine Harrier Pilot’s War in Afghanistan

The author’s experience as a Harrier pilot began with the marines’ effort to outdo the air force in close air support of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Instead of flying hours from bases located in the former Soviet Union, the marines would fly their VTOL jets from bases only minutes from their targets. Sometimes this worked; other times it didn’t or led to friendly-fire casualties and the mobilization of a massive bureaucracy to observe the formalities of an investigation. Meanwhile, the pilots had to fly and fight under conditions that approached the human tolerance for stress. Some of the book’s strongest passages are about how the author fought that stress, with thoughts of his family in particular, and readers will rejoice at his safe return. Meanwhile, they will be considerably wiser about a little-mentioned aspect of the current conflict in Southwest Asia. –Roland Green

The first Afghanistan memoir ever to be written by a Marine Harrier pilot, A Nightmares Prayer portrays the realities of war in the twenty-first century, taking a unique and powerful perspective on combat in Afghanistan as told by a former enlisted man turned officer. Lt. Col. Michael “Zak” Franzak was an AV-8B Marine Corps Harrier pilot who served as executive officer of VMA-513, “The Flying Nightmares,” while deployed in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003. The squadron was the first to base Harriers in Bagram in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. But what should have been a standard six-month deployment soon turned to a yearlong ordeal as the Iraq conflict intensified. And in what appeared to be a forgotten war half a world away from home, Franzak and his colleagues struggled to stay motivated and do their job providing air cover to soldiers patrolling the inhospitable terrain.I wasnt in a foxhole. I was above it. I was safe and comfortable in my sheltered cocoon 20,000 feet over the Hindu Kush. But I prayed. I prayed when I heard the muted cries of men who at last understood their fate.Franzaks personal narrative captures the day-by-day details of his deployment, from family good-byes on departure day to the squadrons return home. He explains the role the Harrier played over the Afghanistan battlefields and chronicles the life of an attack pilotfrom the challenges of nighttime, weather, and the austere mountain environment to the frustrations of working under higher command whose micromanagement often exacerbated difficulties. In vivid and poignant passages, he delivers the full impact of enemy ambushes, the violence of combat, and the heartbreaking aftermath.

And as the Iraq War unfolded, Franzak became embroiled in another battle: one within himself. Plagued with doubts and wrestling with his ego and his belief in God, he discovered in himself a man he loathed. But the hardest test of his lifetime and career was still to comeone that would change him forever.

A stunning true account of service and sacrifice that takes the reader from the harrowing dangers of the cockpit to the secret, interior spiritual struggle facing a man trained for combat, A Nightmares Prayer brings to life a Marines public and personal trials set against “the fine talcum brown soot of Afghanistan that permeated everythingeven ones soul.”

A Nightmare’s Prayer: A Marine Harrier Pilot’s War in Afghanistan

Now a sports columnist for the Providence Journal-Bulletin, Bill Reynolds suffered from a common affliction. He was a star athlete in high school and college, but he couldn’t quite give up the ghost when his playing days were done. As a young man, he put everything he had into the dreams of his basketball glory days, and suddenly, too suddenly, they were over. Now what? It’s the question that haunts this affecting memoir of a man who found it impossible to let go. A decade after the cheering stopped, “I knew,” he admits, “my life no longer worked the day the sheriff knocked on my door with a summons to appear in court for an overextended credit card loan.” Once he figured out that he could make his obsession work for him–mentally, as a sportswriter; physically, in pick-up hoops–his life began to work, too. What makes Glory Days ultimately work is Reynolds’s ability to take his confessional beyond the personal; he skillfully uses his experience as a laboratory for exploring the nation’s fixation on its games and the unwillingness of so many American men to grow up and move on. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

This is the story of a man who resisted admitting he had a sports obsession, but who finally decided that obsession was destiny. Reynolds’s (Fall River Dreams) problem developed because he was good on the court but never great. Though a high school star, he was a less-than-stellar student who had to spend a year in prep school before being admitted to Brown University, where, according to him, rules were bent to keep him on the team. Before graduating he realized he couldn’t succeed in the pros so he spent years batting around, barely surviving as a teacher and freelance writer and finding that his monomania poisoned his relationships with women, including the one to whom he was married briefly. Finally, Reynolds became a sportswriter in Rhode Island and started playing pickup games daily with other aging athletes?and found nirvana. His candid observations about himself and the passion for sports in this country raise his memoir above the ordinary.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Bill Reynolds built his youth around sports. As a boy in a blue-collar Rhode Island town, he spend his hours shooting hoops and dreaming of stardom. From his adolescence to high school fame to a scholarship at Brown University, Reynolds enjoyed the perks of athletic glory. But those days soon ended and the onetime star drifted between his past and an uncertain future. Glory Days is a warm, touching, and funny book about what happens when jocks grow older –about getting a life without losing touch with your dreams.

Now a sports columnist for the Providence Journal-Bulletin, Bill Reynolds suffered from a common affliction. He was a star athlete in high school and college, but he couldn’t quite give up the ghost when his playing days were done. As a young man, he put everything he had into the dreams of his basketball glory days, and suddenly, too suddenly, they were over. Now what? It’s the question that haunts this affecting memoir of a man who found it impossible to let go. A decade after the cheering stopped, “I knew,” he admits, “my life no longer worked the day the sheriff knocked on my door with a summons to appear in court for an overextended credit card loan.” Once he figured out that he could make his obsession work for him–mentally, as a sportswriter; physically, in pick-up hoops–his life began to work, too. What makes Glory Days ultimately work is Reynolds’s ability to take his confessional beyond the personal; he skillfully uses his experience as a laboratory for exploring the nation’s fixation on its games and the unwillingness of so many American men to grow up and move on. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Glory Days: On Sports, Men, and Dreams-That Don’t Die

Basketball Junkie: A Memoir

In this blunt, self-deprecating memoir, Herren tells his story as one of the greatest high school athletes to come out of southern New England. Fall River, Mass., has a storied basketball tradition, and Herren’s achievements on the court made him a local hero as well as bringing him to the attention of national recruiters and Sports Illustrated. Overwhelmed by expectations, Herren avoided school and abused drugs and alcohol. Although Herren managed to make it to the NBA, his life continued to spin out of control until he OD’d in his car and was found unconscious with a bag of heroin on the seat beside him. Herren offers explanations for his downfall but doesn’t make excuses. Neither does he glorify the partying and excess that made his life a blur. What he does achieve is something more valuable: giving a stark portrayal of the surreal existence led by young sports stars in a world of rapacious agents, vicious rivals, oblivious fans, and educational institutions that enable their “student” athletes to get away with almost anything. In the end, this is a sobering, cautionary tale for star-athletes-to-be. (May)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

I was dead for thirty seconds.

Thats what the cop in Fall River told me.

When the EMTs found me, there was a needle in my arm and a packet of heroin in the front seat.

At basketball-crazy Durfee High School in Fall River, Massachusetts, junior guard Chris Herren carried his familys and the citys dreams on his skinny frame. His grandfather, father, and older brother had created their own sports legends in a declining city; he was the last, best hope for a career beyond the shuttered mills and factories. Herren was heavily recruited by major universities, chosen as a McDonalds All-American, featured in a Sports Illustrated cover story, and at just seventeen years old became the central figure in Fall River Dreams, an acclaimed book about the 1994 Durfee teams quest for the state championship.

Leaving Fall River for college, Herren starred on Jerry Tarkanians Fresno State Bulldogs team of talented misfits, which included future NBA players as well as future convicted felons. His gritty, tattooed, hip-hop persona drew the ire of rival fans and more national attention: Rolling Stone profiled him, 60 Minutes interviewed him, and the Denver Nuggets drafted him. When the Boston Celtics acquired his contract, he lived the dream of every Massachusetts kidbut off the court Herren was secretly crumbling, as his alcohol and drug use escalated and his life spiraled out of control.

Twenty years later, Chris Herren was married to his high-school sweetheart, the father of three young children, and a heroin junkie. His basketball career was over, consumed by addictions; he had no job, no skills, and was a sadly familiar figure to those in Fall River who remembered him as a boy, now prowling the streets he once ruled, looking for a fix. One day, for a time he cannot remember, he would die.

In his own words, Chris Herren tells how he nearly lost everything and everyone he loved, and how he found a way back to life. Powerful, honest, and dramatic, Basketball Junkie is a remarkable memoir, harrowing in its descent, and heartening in its return.

Basketball Junkie: A Memoir

Griffin draws on her experience as a lesbian coach and athlete for this groundbreaking work intended to “challenge the despised sexual predator image” that so often stalks when women and sport come together. She also draws on 15 years of leading various workshops on homophobia in the world of sport, on previously published writings, and, perhaps most important, on interviews with lesbian athletes, coaches, and sports administrators that she conducted specifically for this book. The resulting 11 chapters consider such things as stereotypes old and new that keep many women out of sport; the defenses of institutionalized sport against lesbianism, including silence, heterosexual-image promotion, and downright attacks on lesbians; the role of the Christian right in sport; and identity management for lesbian coaches and athletes. Written in a brisk, readable style, this generously referenced summary of the lesbian sporting life will appeal to readers of serious sports studies as well as lesbian studies. Whitney Scott

“”"”This is without a doubt the most informed, insightful, engaging and detailed work on lesbian experiences in sport.”"”
Don Sabo, PhD
Professor, D’Youville College, Buffalo, NY
“”"In this ground-breaking book, Pat Griffin brings the shameful consequences of the long-standing and deep-seated association between women’s sports and lesbianism out of the closet without shaming anyone in the process.”"”
Mary Jo Kane
Director, Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport
University of Minnesota
”

Former athlete and coach Pat Griffin makes a provocative and impassioned call for attention to a topic too long avoided by women’s sports advocates. In Strong Women, Deep Closets, she provides a critical analysis of discrimination and prejudice against lesbians in sport.

The book is the first to explore the lesbian sporting experience as well as examine homophobia and heterosexism in women’s sport. The work is based on theoretical and historical foundations and is written in an academic yet engaging style. Griffin brings to light the experiences of lesbian coaches and athletes in their own words.

Strong Women, Deep Closets concludes with Griffin’s assessment of the current state of lesbians’ rights in athletics, set against the overall social picture in the United States. The author lists obstacles lesbian athletes face in transforming sports and details numerous personal and political strategies for leveling the playing field.

“”"”This is without a doubt the most informed, insightful, engaging and detailed work on lesbian experiences in sport.”"”
Don Sabo, PhD
Professor, D’Youville College, Buffalo, NY
“”"In this ground-breaking book, Pat Griffin brings the shameful consequences of the long-standing and deep-seated association between women’s sports and lesbianism out of the closet without shaming anyone in the process.”"”
Mary Jo Kane
Director, Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport
University of Minnesota
”

Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport

In The Game: Gay Athletes And The Cult Of Masculinity

Using interviews with openly gay and closeted team-sport athletes, Eric Anderson examines how homophobia is reproduced in sport, how gay male athletes navigate this, and how American masculinity is changing. By detailing individual experiences, Anderson shows how these athletes are emerging from their athletic closets and contesting the dominant norms of masculinity. From the locker rooms of high school sports, where the atmosphere of “don’t ask, don’t tell” often exists, to the unique circumstances that gay athletes encounter in professional team sports, this book analyzes the agency that openly gay athletes possess to change their environments. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

In the Game Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity

Eric Anderson – Author

SUNY series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations

Summary

Examines the relationship between gay male athletes, sport, and American masculinity.

In The Game: Gay Athletes And The Cult Of Masculinity (S U N Y Series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations)

“Words shimmer and resonate in this book, which combines the photographs of the late Galen Rowell – a California native – With a panoply of quotes about the Golden State from an impressive array of writers. Rowell’s landscapes are so vividly rich…that they work at this scale like dazzling jewels…[a] skillful blending of text and image.”
Color Magazine

“This collection of images shows off the Golden States most scenic vistas…the states diverse natural beauty is augmented with inspirational words from Maya Angelou, Joan Didion, John Muir and many more.”
Outdoor Photographer

“Peter Beren edits this gorgeous collection…pairing some eighty-five images from the photographer Galen Rowell with the voices of some fifty California writers, from Maya Angelou to Ray Bradbury and Henry Miller. A lovely, keepsake editiion for any California collection.”
California Bookwatch

“As a California native and former photographer and travel expert, I can truly say that the photographs in California the Beautiful are the next best things to being there.”
–Rebecca Foree, author of Northern California Best Places

GALEN ROWELL (1940-2002) photographed all over the world and is renowned for his staggering archive of nature and outdoor photography. An accomplished mountaineer, he could obtain camera angles that other photographers could not reach. His work has appeared in every major nature magazine, including National Geographic, Life, Outside, Sports Illustrated, and countless other publications around the globe.

Rowell’s fine prints have been featured at New York’s Nikon House and International Center of Photography, Chicago’s Field Museum, The Smithsonian Institution and many other domestic and foreign venues. He is the author of more than a dozen bestselling illustrated books, including North America the Beautiful, Mountain Light, and My Tibet.

PETER BEREN has authored and edited numerous books, including The Writer’s Companion, Vintage San Francisco, and Hidden Napa Valley. Formerly publisher of Sierra Club Books and founding publisher of VIA Books, Peter lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Susan, a publishing professional.

As America stands to the rest of the world, so stands California to America – a shining promise of endless possibility. This exquisite celebration of the Golden State has been updated with a new introduction, new cover design, and an enlarged size to suit the grandeur of its subject. California the Beautiful is both a portrait of the state’s diverse natural beauty and, through the incredible voices of its writers, a testament to the ever-renewing spirit that it has come to embody. Aldous Huxley, British author turned Hollywood resident, described the California dream as “this great crystal of light, whose base is as large as Europe and whose height for all practical purposes, is infinite.” Among the other authors offering praise are Maya Angelou, Mary Austin, Ray Bradbury, Joan Didion, Gretel Ehrlich, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, M.F.K Fisher, Robertson Jeffers, Jack Kerouac, Clarence King, Jack London, Henry Miller, John Muir, William Saroyan, April Smith, John Steinbeck, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Nathanael West, and Walt Whitman.

Land of innovation and opportunity, California is both dream and reality. California the Beautiful is a gift for all who have felt the lure of this dual promise and who have marveled at the unrivaled beauty of this quintessentially American land.

“Words shimmer and resonate in this book, which combines the photographs of the late Galen Rowell – a California native – With a panoply of quotes about the Golden State from an impressive array of writers. Rowell’s landscapes are so vividly rich…that they work at this scale like dazzling jewels…[a] skillful blending of text and image.”
Color Magazine

“This collection of images shows off the Golden States most scenic vistas…the states diverse natural beauty is augmented with inspirational words from Maya Angelou, Joan Didion, John Muir and many more.”
Outdoor Photographer

“Peter Beren edits this gorgeous collection…pairing some eighty-five images from the photographer Galen Rowell with the voices of some fifty California writers, from Maya Angelou to Ray Bradbury and Henry Miller. A lovely, keepsake editiion for any California collection.”
California Bookwatch

“As a California native and former photographer and travel expert, I can truly say that the photographs in California the Beautiful are the next best things to being there.”
–Rebecca Foree, author of Northern California Best Places

California the Beautiful

Bay Area Wild: A Celebration of the Natural Heritage of the San Francisco Bay Area

Hunted for their meat and hides, Tule elk disappeared from much of California in the wake of the Gold Rush of 1849. Many varieties of waterfowl, grasses, fish, and reptiles once lived in tidal wetlands now swallowed up by metropolitan growth. Yet the elk are back in small numbers after a herd was reintroduced on the Point Reyes Peninsula; wetlands are being restored; and the area around San Francisco is benefiting from a growing awareness that its natural wealth has been needlessly squandered–and that something can be done about it. Wildlife photographers Galen Rowell and Michael Sewell document this story in a wonderful collection of plates, backed by a well-written, informative text. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The San Francisco Bay Area holds the most extensive system of wild greenbelts in the nation, with more than 200 parks and other protected areas lying within forty miles of the city. With stunning photography and inspiring text, renowned outdoor photographer Galen Rowell has created the ultimate tribute to the area where he was born and raised.
Rowells extraordinary photographs make clear why so many have worked so hard to preserve the Bay Area’s wildlands, and why this work must continue. Miles of rugged coastline, valleys, bays, islands, mountains, and ocean are captured in stirring images, including a full moon setting through pines on Mount Tamalpais, sunlight illuminating poppies in Tilden Regional Park, and winter storm waves crashing against the rocky San Mateo coast.
Working with Rowell to create this superb collection of images was award-winning photographer Michael Sewell, also a Bay Area native. Sewell has spent years photographing Bay Area wildlife at close range in their natural habitat.
More than 170 spectacular photographs and Rowell’s rich descriptions of Bay Area landscapes, as well as interviews with those who were instrumental in preserving them, combine to make Bay Area Wild an unforgettable celebration of these unique national treasures.

Bay Area Wild: A Celebration of the Natural Heritage of the San Francisco Bay Area

Time journalist Iyer’s cosmopolitan travelogue explores the cultural isolation of such regions as North Korea, Iceland and Bhutan.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Only some of the “lonely places” covered in this book (North Korea, Argentina, Cuba, Iceland, Bhutan, Vietnam, Paraguay, Australia) are isolated by geography, but all are culturally or politically isolated. That few tourist itineraries include these misfit countries increases their sense of being alone in the world. Iyer, a journalist for Time and Conde Nast Traveler , writes in a cool, ironic style similar to that of the late Bruce Chatwin. His essays are more impressionistic than informative and seem intended for armchair travelers rather than adventurers. At times, Iyer is a bit too detached, too unruffled by what he experiences. He does not fully convey to us the strangeness of the strange places he has visited. Despite the lack of emotion, Iyer’s impressions make interesting reading. Recommended for public libraries.
- Mary C. Kalfatovic, Telesec Lib. Svces., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The author of Video Night in Kathmandu ups the ante on himself in this sublimely evocative and acerbically funny tour through the world’s loneliest and most eccentric places. From Iceland to Bhutan to Argentina, Iyer remains both uncannily observant and hilarious.

Falling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of The World

Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East

Only in India would the American film Rambo be remade with the title role played by a woman–in a sari, no less! Only in Hong Kong would a man at a cocktail party pick up a woman with the line "What do you think of the dollar?" And only in Video Night in Kathmandu will you find detailed, unsettling portraits of a Far East in flux as experienced by Pico Iyer, a travel writer beyond compare. Tibet, China, India, and Thailand–these are among the objects of Iyer’s wanderlust, the subjects of 11 essays chronicling his travels. In India, he explores the lucrative Bombay film business: "The process of turning an American movie into an Indian one was not very difficult … but it did require a few changes…. the Indian hero had to be domesticated, supplied with a father, a mother, and a clutch of family complications." As one film director told him, " … for example, Rambo must be given a sister who was raped." In Bangkok he finds the sex trade is well nigh impossible to avoid: " … by the time a third official government tout approached me with the novel invitation: ‘My friend. You no like birdwatching?’ I was inclined to suspect that ornithology was not among his interests."

Pico Iyer is more than just a travel writer. For four years, he wrote about world affairs for Time, and he brings to these brilliant, comical, and poignant essays his extensive knowledge of politics and culture as well as a journalist’s eye for the telling details. Video Night in Kathmandu provides both a stark, unsettling view of modern Asia and an exploration of the ambivalent attitudes Asians hold toward the West.

Mohawk hair-cuts in Bali, yuppies in Hong Kong and Rambo rip-offs in the movie houses of Bombay are just a few of the jarring images that Iyer brings back from the Far East.

Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East

For the four decades he’s been writing about baseball for The New Yorker, Roger Angell has led all shortlists of the game’s most astute and elegant chroniclers. With A Pitcher’s Story: Innings with David Cone, he attempts, with thrilling command, something he’s never tried before–devoting a whole volume to one player by spending an entire season at his heels. In pitcher David Cone, a cerebral student of his game and articulate practitioner of his craft, Angell finds a subject as perfect as the perfecto Cone hurled against the Expos on Yogi Berra Day at Yankee Stadium in 1999. Better still, he finds in Cone a partner unwilling to shrink beneath the hot light of what would prove to be an agonizing and introspective year.

One of the game’s premier pitchers, Cone came unglued in 2000; his 4-14 season was a disaster. The “wizardly old master” Angell had intended to extol was suddenly “Merlin falling headlong down the palace stairs.” There’s gold to be spun from that, though, and Angell, the essayist as deft alchemist, spins away. The more Cone struggles–the more he battles age, doubt, injury, and the various curves baseball fate can throw–to regain what he’s lost, the more valiant he seems. It gives A Pitcher’s Story its depth, its heart, its spirit, and its honor. If Angell entered into the project with the intention of getting a grip on the delicacies of pitching, he does, but he comes away with so much more. Like good battery mates, Cone and Angell work with, and off of, each other. Together, they evoke a canny portrait of a career at the crossroads, and a meditation on the powers of an elite athlete’s pride. –Jeff Silverman –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

This is not the book that master baseball chronicler Angell set out to write, the author acknowledges midway through what is essentially a biography of the well-traveled Cone. Angell had planned an “inside look at a wizardly old master at his late last best,” but instead found a “Merlin falling headlong down the palace stairs.” Neither Cone nor Angell could have foreseen that after the Yankee pitcher gave Angell full access to him during the 2000 baseball season, Cone would have the worst year of his career, finishing with a 4-14 won-lost record. Although Angell’s focal point is Cone’s last year with the Yankees, he covers all of Cone’s life and career, tracking his baseball journey from his days as a star athlete in Kansas City to his stops with the Mets, Blue Jays, Royals and Yankees. Cone had success with each team he played for, including being one of the core players and unofficial team spokesman for the 1996-2000 Yankees with whom Cone won four World Series. Angell (The Summer Game) not only details Cone’s highs and lows on and off the playing field, but does a superb job in recording Cone’s anxieties and frustrations as the two men move through the disappointing 2000 season. The combination of Angell’s love and knowledge of baseball and his truly fascinating subjects makes for another win in Angell’s long list of hits about the American pastime. (On-sale: May 2)Forecast: Given the Yankees’ recent dominance, this book will attract a lot of fans despite Cone’s disappointing last season and his off-seasonn move to the Red Sox. In addition to radio spots in New York and a TV satellite tour to 25 other markets, fans of America’s team of the century will call this book a keeper, not only because of Cone but also because of Angell’s deservedly high reputation as a sportswriter.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Baseballs best writer offers an extraordinarily candid and thorough exploration of the inner craft of pitching from one of the games best, David Cone.There is no big league pitcher who is more respected for his skill than David Cone. In his stellar career Cone has won multiple championships andcountless professional accolades. Along the way, the perennial all-star has had to adjust to five different ballclubs, recover from a career-threatening arm aneurysm, cope with the lofty expectations that are standard for the games highest paid players, and overcome a humbling three-month, eight-game losing streak in the summer of 2000. Cone granted exclusive and unlimited access to baseballs most respected writerRoger Angell of The New Yorker. The result is just what baseball fans everywhere would expect from Angell: an extraordinary inside account of a superstar.

For the four decades he’s been writing about baseball for The New Yorker, Roger Angell has led all shortlists of the game’s most astute and elegant chroniclers. With A Pitcher’s Story: Innings with David Cone, he attempts, with thrilling command, something he’s never tried before–devoting a whole volume to one player by spending an entire season at his heels. In pitcher David Cone, a cerebral student of his game and articulate practitioner of his craft, Angell finds a subject as perfect as the perfecto Cone hurled against the Expos on Yogi Berra Day at Yankee Stadium in 1999. Better still, he finds in Cone a partner unwilling to shrink beneath the hot light of what would prove to be an agonizing and introspective year.

One of the game’s premier pitchers, Cone came unglued in 2000; his 4-14 season was a disaster. The “wizardly old master” Angell had intended to extol was suddenly “Merlin falling headlong down the palace stairs.” There’s gold to be spun from that, though, and Angell, the essayist as deft alchemist, spins away. The more Cone struggles–the more he battles age, doubt, injury, and the various curves baseball fate can throw–to regain what he’s lost, the more valiant he seems. It gives A Pitcher’s Story its depth, its heart, its spirit, and its honor. If Angell entered into the project with the intention of getting a grip on the delicacies of pitching, he does, but he comes away with so much more. Like good battery mates, Cone and Angell work with, and off of, each other. Together, they evoke a canny portrait of a career at the crossroads, and a meditation on the powers of an elite athlete’s pride. –Jeff Silverman –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A Pitcher’s Story: Innings with David Cone

Let Me Finish

Starred Review. Over the past few years, New Yorker readers have been treated to the occasional personal reflection from Angell, stepping outside his usual baseball beat to write about such intimacies as his passion for sailing or his childhood fascination with the movies. It’s the family drama that’s of most immediate interest, as Angell recalls the divorce of his parents, Ernest and Katherine Angell, and his mother’s subsequent remarriage to E.B. White, affectionately known as Andy. Or perhaps readers will be more eager to hear about life at the New Yorker, especially since Angell admits, “I no longer expect to write” much more about his fellow writers and editors than the miniature portraits collected here (but thankfully we do have such scenes as the visit he and S.J. Perelman paid to W. Somerset Maugham while vacationing in France in 1949). Whatever the subject, Angell writes with his customary elegance and modesty; “I’ve kept quiet about my trifling army career all these years,” he says in one essay, just before spinning off a series of captivating anecdotes about his WWII service. The assembled pieces add up to a fine memoir. (May
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Widely known as an original and graceful writer, Roger Angell has developed a devoted following through his essays in the New Yorker. Now, in Let Me Finish, a deeply personal, fresh form of autobiography, he takes an unsentimental look at his early days as a boy growing up in Prohibition-era New York with a remarkable father; a mother, Katharine White, who was a founding editor of the New Yorker; and a famous stepfather, the writer E. B. White.

Intimate, funny, and moving portraits form the books centerpiece as Angell remembers his surprising relatives, his early attraction to baseball in the time of Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio, and his vivid colleagues during a long career as a New Yorker writer and editor. Infused with pleasure and sadness, Angells disarming memoir also evokes an attachment to lifes better moments.

Let Me Finish

For more than twenty years, the Insiders Guide series has been the essential source for in-depth travel and relocation informationfrom true insiders whose personal, practical perspective gives you everything you need to know.From world-class ski resorts and rugged mountains to pristine beaches and magnificent golf courses, theres more to Reno and Lake Tahoe than just spectacular entertainment venues and casino gaming. This authoritative guide will show you how to navigate the crystal-clear waters of Lake Tahoe and the exciting nightlife of The Biggest Little City in the World.Inside you’ll find:
Countless details on how to live and thrive in the area,from the best shopping to the lowdown on real estate
The inside scoop on popular attractions such as theNational Automobile Museum, Truckee River WhitewaterPark, and Sierra Safari Zoo
Comprehensive listings of restaurants, accommodations,and year-round outdoor recreationfrom snowboardingand skiing to golfing and horseback riding
Sections dedicated to children and retirement

This authoritative guide will show you how to navigate the crystal-clear waters of Lake Tahoe and the exciting nightlife of The Biggest Little City in the World.Insiders’ Guide to Reno and Lake Tahoe, 6th (Insiders’ Guide Series)

Best Easy Day Hikes Lake Tahoe, 2nd

Best Easy Day Hikes Lake Tahoe includes concise descriptions and detailed maps for twenty-four easy-to-follow hikes within an hour of Tahoe City, Incline Village, and South Lake Tahoe/Stateline. Discover the regions diverse natural splendorsfrom secluded Skunk Harbor and the granite outcrops along the Pacific Crest Trail, to stunning views at Cascade Falls and the seductions of a mountain meadow on the Tahoe Rim Trail.Look inside for:
Thirty-minute strolls to four-hour adventures
Hikes for everyone, including families
Mile-by-mile directions and clear trail maps
Trail Finder for the best hikes for lake lovers, great views, children, and history lovers
GPS coordinates

Hikes varying from half-hour strolls to full-day adventures, this guidebook is for everyone, including families.

Best Easy Day Hikes Lake Tahoe, 2nd (Best Easy Day Hikes Series)

MAY-LEE CHAI is the author of five books, including The Girl from Purple Mountain (coauthored with her father, Winberg Chai). She has a masters degree from Yale University in East Asian studies and has studied and worked in China.
WINBERG CHAI was born in Shanghai. He received his Ph.D. from New York University and is the author of more than twenty books on China. When not teaching in the United States, he lectures frequently in China. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A practical and accessible guide to an ancient but rapidly changing culture

Perfect for business and armchair travelers alike, China A to Z explains the customs, culture, and etiquette essential for any trip or for anyone wanting to understand this complex country. In one hundred brief, reader-friendly chapters, alphabetized by subject, China A to Z introduces a general audience to contemporary Chinese society, as well as its venerable history. Discover:
? Why Chinese names are written in reverse order
? What to bring when visiting a Chinese household
? What the current relationship is between Japan and China
? Why you should wrap gifts in red or pink paper, and never send white flowers

With the 2008 Summer Olympics being held in Beijing, thousands of Chinese adoptions occurring each year, and China becoming the fourth most popular international destination, the need for information about this complex country is greater than ever.

China A to Z: Everything You Need to Know to Understand Chinese Customs and Culture

The Chinese Mind: Understanding Traditional Chinese Beliefs and their Influence on Contemporary Culture

Boye Lafayette De Mente is an acknowledged authority on Asia and the author of more than 30 books, including Etiquette Guide to China, Instant Chinese and Survival Chinese.

A fascinating examination of contemporary Chinese culture, The Chinese Mind offers an informative, accessible look at the values, attitudes and behavior patterns of modern Chinaand their roots in the history of this ancient nation.

This excellent overview of Chinese tradition, history and culture is perfect for the classroom, for tourists or outsiders living or doing business in China, and for inspiring discussion among readers. Covering everything from the importance of Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, to the influence of foreign fast food and video games, this book provides a wide-ranging glimpse into the seemingly opaque Chinese mind.

The Chinese Mind: Understanding Traditional Chinese Beliefs and their Influence on Contemporary Culture

Lace up your boots and sample fifty-three of the best trails in New Mexico’s Aldo Leopold Wilderness – a vast, 202,016-acre wonderland of canyons, valleys, mesas, long ridges, and lofty peaks. From great volcanic spires and spectacular cliff formations to dry pinyon-juniper woodlands and rolling virgin ponderosa pine forests, the diversity of the trails in Hiking New Mexico’s Aldo Leopold Wilderness should please nature lovers and history buffs alike. Let veteran hikers Bill Cunningham and Polly Burke lead you through day hikes, two- or three-day backpacks, and rugged wilderness hikes.Use this guide for: up-to-date trail information; accurate directions to popular as well as less-traveled trails; difficulty ratings for each hike; detailed trail maps; zero-impact camping tips.Whether you are a day-tripper or long-distance hiker, old hand or novice, you’ll find trails suited to every ability and interest in New Mexico’s Aldo Leopold Wilderness. (6 x 9, 288 pages, b&w photos, maps, charts)

Bill Cunningham and Polly Burke are lifelong hikers and wilderness advocates. They have collaborated on several other FalconGuides, including Hiking California’s Desert Parks and Hiking New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness.

Contains the most wild and rugged portion the Black Range, with its deep canyons and ridges rising above desert. A short section of the Continental Divide Trail is only part of the many miles that unfold in this excellent hiking guide.
TWS

Hiking New Mexico’s Aldo Leopold Wilderness

100 Hikes in New Mexico 3rd Edition

CRAIG MARTIN is an outdoor writer with more than a dozen books to his credit, including Fly Fishing in Northern New Mexico, Santa Fe Area Mountain Bike Trails, and Enchanted Waters: A Guide to New Mexico s Hot Springs. He lives in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

A fully updated edition of one of New Mexico s bestselling guidebooks!
Offers a variety of hikes around the state plus a new Trails-at-a-Glance feature.
The most current hiking guide to New Mexico on the market.
New Mexico offers a surprising variety of terrain to explore, from the Chihuahuan Desert in the south to remarkable alpine lakes in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the north. In this completely updated guide to New Mexico s impressive trails, author Craig Martin includes easy 1- and 2-mile day jaunts, numerous 8- to 12-mile hikes, and difficult 20-plus-mile backpack trips for the more ardent adventurer.
Interesting on-the-trail information such as the history of old mining camps, homesteads, and ghost towns is provided. Most hikes are quickly accessible from the urban centers of Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

100 Hikes in New Mexico 3rd Edition

Joshua Kinser got his start as a journalist working on his college newspaper in Pensacola, FL, writing outdoor travel feature articles and a performing arts column. He went on to work at the Pensacola News Journalhe left his job there to pursue a professional music career, but continued writing on a freelance basis, publishing travel articles in SAIL magazine, art-oriented articles in Dance Spirit, and several regional travel features for PLAY magazine, a special issue division of Northwest Florida Business Magazine.

Joshua lived exclusively in Pensacola, FL for 25 years, and in that time he traveled the Gulf Coast region extensively. In 2006, he spent two months traveling the exact region that this book coversPensacola to Everglades Citycamping, paddling, boating and hiking his way through the highlights of Floridas Gulf Coast. An avid traveler, Joshua has journeyed all over the worldbut he still considers the Gulf Coast home.

Joshua currently lives in Emerald Isle, NC.

Long-time Florida resident Joshua Kinser covers the best of the Gulf Coast, from the mangroves of Everglades National Park to the glass skyscrapers and lazy canals of Tampa. Kinser has plenty of fun, interesting trip strategies to offer, including Best Beaches, Camping on the Coast, and RV the GC. Complete with details on snorkeling and diving the Nature Coast’s Caverns, wandering through the historical sites of Apalachicola and Tallahassee, and fishing along miles of coast and parkland, Moon Florida Gulf Coast gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience.Moon Florida Gulf Coast (Moon Handbooks)

Explorer’s Guide Sarasota, Sanibel Island & Naples: A Great Destination

Chelle Koster Walton, author of the award-winning Caribbean Ways: A Cultural Guide, has penned more than a hundred articles on the region for publications ranging from the Miami Herald to Caribbean Travel & Life. A diver and boater, she also has won the Bahamas Cacique Award for international travel writing.

In this updated guide youll find the definitive word on this Gulf Coast area, its recreation, restaurants, hotels, and more, from deluxe to offbeat.

Enjoy an insiders vantage point on Charlotte Harbors wild shores, the coasts sandy barrier islands, Napless polished allure, and Sarasota-Bradentons sweet history. Black-and-white photographs throughout

Explorer’s Guide Sarasota, Sanibel Island & Naples: A Great Destination (Fifth Edition) (Explorer’s Great Destinations)