In an educational era defined by large school campuses and overcrowded classrooms, it is easy to overlook the era of one-room schools, when teachers filled every role, including janitor, and provided a familylike atmosphere in which children also learned from one another. In Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers, William Lynwood Montell reclaims an important part of Kentucky's social, cultural, and educational heritage, assembling a fun and fascinating collection of schoolroom stories that chronicle a golden era in Kentucky. The firsthand narratives and anecdotes in this collection cover topics such as teacher-student relationships, day-to-day activities, lunchtime foods, students' personal relationships, and, of course, the challenges of teaching in a one-room school. Montell includes tales about fund-raising pie suppers, pranks, outrageous student behavior (such as the quiet little boy whose first "sharing" involved profanity), and variety of other topics. Montell even includes some of his own memories from his days as a pupil in a one-room school. Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers is a delightful glimpse of the history of education.

Exploring three generations of the men in his family -- his father and his two uncles, his own two brothers, and his two sons -- Bret Lott spins a sweeping true saga of the ties that bind. With quiet grace and his trademark talent for finding powerful revelations in the most unlikely places, master novelist Lott delivers a bracingly personal and honest memoir that confronts the often inexpressible complexities of contemporary maleness. Fathers, Sons, and Brothers describes not only the ways men and boys relate to one another but also how their lives evolve over decades, endlessly imitative yet varied. In the end, these essays constitute a celebration of humanity, regardless of gender -- of joy and sorrow, of intimacy and distance, of lingering secrets and universal truths.

Welcome to the world of the modern Asian American woman, where the willingness to cause "trouble" -- to stir the waters, think deeply, and go against what is expected -- is the first of many steps to self-discovery and power. Now, Phoebe Eng shatters stereotypes and offers a bold new vision for American-raised daughters like herself.

A second-generation eldest daughter, caught between cultures, codes of behavior, and colliding worlds, Eng had to learn that in order to be true to herself, conflict and tough choices were necessary. But with those, she found, came a wonderful payoff: the doors to opportunity flew open.

Serving as both guide and mentor, Eng addresses the range of issues Asian American women face, including:

• How can we deal with family expectations?

• What is "false power" and how do we recognize it in our lives?

• Can we trust one another?

• How do we build healthy relationships in the face of "geisha girl" stereotypes?

• How can we find a sense of "home"?
  

Warrior Lessons signifies a generation and goes far beyond the limiting portrayal of what Eng calls "The Good Little Model Minority Girl." At last, here is a manual for today's woman warrior as she channels her rage and cultivates her power.

Talk to women under forty today, and you will hear that in spite of the fact that they have achieved goals previous generations of women could only dream of, they nonetheless feel more confused and insecure than ever. What has gone wrong? What can be done to set it right?

These are the questions Danielle Crittenden answers in What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us. She examines the foremost issues in women's lives -- sex, marriage, motherhood, work, aging, and politics -- and argues that a generation of women has been misled: taught to blame men and pursue independence at all costs. Happiness is obtainable, Crittenden says, but only if women will free their minds from outdated feminist attitudes.

By drawing on her own experience and a decade of research and analysis of modern female life, Crittenden passionately and engagingly tackles the myths that keep women from realizing the happiness they deserve. And she introduces a new way of thinking about society's problems that may, at long last, help women achieve the lives they desire.

Truth is often stranger than fiction, especially when it comes to the workplace. In "Cube Farm, "author, Bill Blunden, recounts his three years in Minnesota, performing research and development for Lawson Software. Riddled with intrigue, duplicity and collusion, this story offers a trench-level view of a company in the throes of internal rivalry, and suffering from a string of failed projects.

If you have ever suffered at the hands of an incompetent manager, or toiled in a dysfunctional environment, then this hilarious account will appeal to you. "Cube Farm "provides "lessons learned" sections, at the end of each chapter, which delve into the basics in corporate self defense. Table of Contents THE IVY LEAGUE ADVANTAGE BLAZING A TRAIL TO MINNESOTA FIRST IMPRESSIONS THE ILLUMINATI VANISHING ACT THE KING'S NEW CLOTHES THE GREAT ESCAPE IT'S THE NATURE OF THE BEAST A FIXED FIGHT THE Y2K TIME BOMB!

Prison, Inc. provides a first-hand account of life behind bars in a controversial new type of prison facility: the private prison. These for-profit prisons are becoming increasingly popular as state budgets get tighter. Yet as privatization is seen as a necessary and cost-saving measure, not much is known about how these facilities are run and whether or not they can effectively watch over this difficult and dangerous population. For the first time, Prison, Inc. provides a look inside one of these private prisons as told through the eyes of an actual inmate, K.C. Carceral who has been in the prison system for over twenty years.

The amazing true story of how London became home to the Russian super-rich. A dazzling tale of incredible wealth, ferocious disputes, beautiful women, private jets, mega-yachts, the world s best footballers and chauffeur-driven Range Rovers with tinted windows.

A group of buccaneering Russian oligarchs made colossal fortunes after the collapse of communism and many of them came to London to enjoy their new-found wealth. Londongrad tells for the first time the true story of their journeys from Moscow and St Petersburg to mansions in Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Surrey and takes you into a shimmering world of audacious multi-billion pound deals, outrageous spending and rancorous feuds.

But while London's flashiest restaurants echoed to Russian laughter and Bond Street shop-owners totted up their profits, darker events also played themselves out. The killing of ex-KGB man Alexander Litvinenko in London to the death in a helicopter crash he all but predicted of Stephen Curtis, the lawyer to many of Britain's richest Russians, chilled London's Russians and many of those who know them.

This is the story of how Russia's wealth was harvested and brought to London some of it spent by Roman Abramovich on his beloved Chelsea Football Club, some of it spent by Boris Berezovsky in his battles with Russia's all-powerful Vladimir Putin. Londongrad is a must-read for anyone interested in how vast wealth is created, the luxury it can buy and the power and intrigue it produces."

Terry Waite's personal account of his harrowing experiences as a hostage in Beirut. This book gives a fascinating insight into human life on the edge - the things people are willing to do to each other, and what it feels like to be treated in that way. Terry's endurance in the face of unimaginable suffering and long days spent in solitary confinement makes for a compelling tale. This new edition includes an updated foreword and new final chapter conveying just a few of the many and varied experiences that came Terry's way post-release, and conveying his passionate engagement in Middle East issues since his release 25 years ago, an issue of just as much relevance today as ever.

This fascinating collection of entertaining stories from the seven seas reveals unusual and bizarre sailing trips, vessels and characters, and recounts perilous journeys in freak weather and other legendary tales. Within these pages you'll find stories of pirates holding ships to ransom and the gruesome fates of some of the shipmates who dared cross them. The sailors forever lost in the Bermuda triangle, the poor family who were encircled by a school of sharks to the spooky tales of the lighthouse haunted by drunkard lightship keeper John Herman. The tales within these pages are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated for 2016, this book is the perfect gift for both keen sailors to the armchair Captains. Word count: 45,000

In this hugely entertaining collection of stories taken from over a hundred years of world tennis history, award-winning sports historian Peter Seddon has gathered together the most extraordinary events ever to occur on a tennis court. They include the Wimbledon final between the tea-drinking vicar and a convicted murderer, and the 'Match of the Century' between the 'Women's Libber' and the 'Male Chauvinist Pig'. There are matches played on board ship and on the wings of an airborne plane, a game played in full regimental dress, and meet the player who rated himself so highly he played an entire match while carrying someone 'piggy-back'. The stories in this book are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated for a new generation of tennis fanatics, this book is a unique look at the curiosities of an endlessly popular sport, revealing the 'strawberries and cream' game as you've never seen it before. Word count: 45,000

Running's Strangest Tales is a fascinating collection of weird and wonderful stories from the world of running, from the earliest marathon to today's high-tech, apped-up approach. Within these pages you'll find the bizarre story of the Norwegian footballer forced to miss a crucial World Cup qualifier after colliding with a moose on his morning jog, the American ultra-marathoner who had all his toenails removed to improve his running, and why some runners at the 2015 Tokyo marathon were wearing GPS-enabled, edible bananas, complete with LEDs and incoming Twitter updates. Packed with tales that are so odd you'll hardly believe them, this book makes the perfect gift for all running enthusiasts, from the seasoned marathoner to the park jogger, and those who only ever run a bath. Word count: 45,000

The author tells the true tales about the people and the adventures they had in the Yukon.

All of us like to think for ourselves. And so do children - if they have the skills to do it. That's why award-winning psychologist Dr. Myrna Shure decided to create a program to give them those skills. It's called I Can Problem Solve (ICPS) and for twenty-five years it has benefited thousands nationwide. Raising a Thinking Child, a book that will change your family dynamics forever - and help your child develop in ways you never thought possible - brings this positive parenting program directly into your home. Unlike other methods of child rearing, the ICPS approach teaches youngsters as young as four not what to think or do, but how to think - and the results are astounding. Through the program's specially designed and fun-to-do dialogues, games, and activities - easily incorporated into everyday family life - a young child learns how to solve problems and resolve conflicts with friends, teachers, and family; explore alternative solutions and their consequences; and understand the feelings of others. With ICPS, shy children become more assertive and impulsive children are less likely to act out when things don't go their way. Most important the ICPS-competent child is better equipped to avoid early destructive behaviors that later can lead to delinquency, substance abuse, violence, and depression. Helping your child become a thinking, feeling individual and grow up to be a socially adjusted, self-confident adult is what Raising a Thinking Child is all about. Based on years of research and evaluation, clinically proven, and child-tested, it may be the most important gift you can share with your child today...for tomorrow.

Safari guide Jeff Williams has brought together a treasure-trove of stories of dramatic events that occurred whilst guides were leading parties through the bush on foot. Often these were recounted during evenings sitting around a campfire with friends and guide colleagues, swapping yarns and sharing their experiences. Frequently guests were there listening enthralled, shocked and amused in equal measure and sometimes the telling of the tale evoked vivid images. A walking trail in the bush is the ultimate adventure for a visitor to wild Africa and it is the skill and experience of their guides that allow them to do this safely. These walks highlight the essence of the bush - the sights, sounds, and scents that still embody the Africa of the past. Nevertheless, there are occasions when, in spite of the guide's best efforts, unplanned confrontations with potentially dangerous animals occur. Usually these end comfortably with only an adrenaline rush for guests to carry home or publish on social media. But occasionally things become much more dramatic. The reader will hear of potentially perilous situations involving encounters with charging lions, angry elephants, cantankerous buffalos, curious rhinos and, worst of all, the animals' and humans' greatest enemy, poachers. There is the bushman guide who walked over 20km through the night with an inexperienced young girl, successfully handling an attack by a hyena, avoiding elephants and finding shelter and sustenance. Another very young guide used a hugely unorthodox and personally dangerous technique to rescue a guest literally from the jaws of death. Talking to a large elephant to dissuade him from harming a walking party? Yes, that's here too. Sadly, the real African bush is shrinking in size and is under serious threat from the increasingly populated and developing modern world. Some may be able to visit these precious remnants in person but this book provides a window into the specialized field of walking safaris for the armchair reader, the seasoned world traveller and even a stimulating reminder for those who have done it before. Whether you are an armchair explorer or an old Africa Hand there is drama, excitement and even laughter: they are all here.

My Mad Fat Diary is now a major new comedy for E4! It's 1989 and Rae is a fat, boy-mad 17-year-old girl, living in Stamford, Lincolnshire with her mum and their deaf white cat in a council house with a mint off-green bath suite and a larder Rae can't keep away from. This is the hilarious and touching real-life diary she kept during that fateful year - with characters like her evil friend Bethany, Bethany's besotted boyfriend, and the boys from the grammar school up the road (who have code names like Haddock and Battered Sausage). My Mad Fat Diary evokes a vanished time when Charles and Di are still together, the Berlin wall is up, Kylie is expected to disappear from the charts at any moment and it's GBP1 for a Snakebite and Black in the Vaults pub. My Mad Fat Diary will appeal to anyone who's lived through the 1980s. But it will also strike a chord with anyone who's ever been a confused, lonely teenager who clashes with their mother, takes themselves VERY seriously and has no idea how hilarious they are.

New and updated, the paperback edition of the bestselling true story of the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, told with heart-rending honesty by Holly's father Kevin. Some tragedies become part of our national history. On August 4, 2002 Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman disappeared. For the next thirteen days their families, the police, and the local community searched for them, while the nation watched in horrific suspense. Almost two weeks after Holly and Jessica went missing, their bodies were found. Two days later Ian Huntley was charged with their murders. In the terrible weeks that followed Kevin started to make notes, fearful that he might forget important details. GOODBYE, DEAREST HOLLY tells the story of the nightmare that began on August 4th, from the moment it became clear that Holly and Jessica were missing, through the long investigation and its aftermath. An unflinching tale of surviving tragedy, Kevin's diaries tell of battles with the media, police bureaucracy and the legal system. The book also includes a gripping account of the trial and convictions of Huntley and Maxine Carr. Above all, GOODBYE, DEAREST HOLLY is a loving act of fatherhood.

A doctor removes the normal, healthy side of a patient's brain instead of the malignant tumor. A man whose leg is scheduled for amputation wakes up to find his healthy leg removed. These recent examples are part of a history of medical disasters and embarrassments as old as the profession itself. In Medical Blunders, Robert M. Youngson and Ian Schott have written the definitive account of medical mishap in modern and not-so- modern times.

Youngson and Schott cover the gamut of medical accidents, from famous quacks to curious forms of sexual healing, from blunders with the brain to drugs worse than the diseases they are intended to treat. In Medical Blunders, we find shamefully dangerous doctors, human guinea pigs, masturbation treated as a disease requiring treatment, and the legendary surgeon who was himself a craven morphine addict. The resulting picture is one which depicts medical mistakes that are incredible, misguided, arrogant, cruel, or stupendously wrong-headed.

Exploring the line between the comical and the tragic, the honest mistake and the intentional crime, Medical Blunders illustrates once and for all that doctors are subject to the same political, social, historical, and personal pressures as the rest of humanity.

From the #1 international bestselling author of THE REVENANT - the book that inspired the award-winning movie - comes the fascinating story of America's first battle over the environment. In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, an American buffalo herd once numbering 30 million animals was reduced to twelve. In an era that treated the West as nothing more than a treasure chest of resources to be dug up and shot down, the buffalo was a commodity, hounded by hide hunters seeking to make their fortunes. Supporting them was the US Army, which considered the eradication of the buffalo essential to victory in its ongoing war on Native Americans. Into this maelstrom rode young George Bird Grinnell. A scientist and a journalist, a hunter and a conservationist, Grinnell would lead the battle to save the buffalo and preserve an American icon from extinction.

A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo is about natural history, travel in the tropics, life sciences, and adventure, with the environment always in mind. It chronicles the nine years the author spent with his family on that equatorial island. The book's humorous style never detracts from the focus on the science, the island of Borneo and its natural wonders. The story begins in 2007 on top of a garage in Taiwan, where the author kept a greenhouse filled with hundreds of carnivorous tropical pitcher plants. In August of the same year, he attended a conference on these plants in Borneo and met them in the wild for the first time. This triggered an obsession with the island's legendary rainforest fauna and flora, and he decided to move to Borneo with his family for easier access to the jungle. In a tone reminiscent of Bill Bryson, Douglas Adams, and Gerald Durrell - funny, self-deprecating, but always satisfying for the science-minded reader - A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo documents the Breuer family's adventures with Borneo's enormous biodiversity: flying snakes, venomous primates, parachuting frogs, pangolins, king cobras, orangutans, masters of mimicry and camouflage, the world's rarest lizard and the world's longest snake. And these are just a fraction of the life forms the reader will meet. Adventure lurks behind every trail bend: toddler-sized monkeys terrorize night hikers, bearded jungle pigs hunt stray dogs, a giant python almost gets stepped on, and other encounters of the 'not so funny when it happened' kind. The reader will also meet the people inhabiting the island, such as Asia's last rainforest nomads, quaint government officials, and former headhunting tribes that still proudly display their trophies above their fireplaces. Inevitably, the author's life in Borneo also led to first-hand insight into the island's environmental tragedy caused by decades of severe over-exploitation, a recurring topic throughout the book. A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo puts the reader in a front-row seat to marvel at nature's wonders in all their magnificence visiting places unknown and creatures unheard of; and it is also an invitation to consider the state of the planet, to take it seriously, and to act before it's too late.

A collection of fascinating stories, entertainingly told, showing the human face of science. Eurekas and Euphorias contains around 200 anecdotes brilliantly illustrating scientists in all their shapes: the obsessive and the dilettantish, the genial, the envious, the preternaturally brilliant and the slow-witted who sometimes see further in the end, the open-minded and the intolerant, recluses and arrivistes. Told with wit and relish by Walter Gratzer, here are stories to delight, astonish, instruct, and most especially, entertain the general reader, scientist and non-scientist alike.

In January 1994, Abraham Verghese, an Indian doctor in a Texan teaching hospital, was called to the morgue to identify the body of his close friend, student and tennis partner David Smith. David had killed himself because he could not deal with his addiction to intravenously injected cocaine. This book is Verghese's tribute to hisdead friend; it is also an attempt to understand and explain drug addiction. Being both doctor and friend, Verghese offers us a unique insight into addiction, describing with clinical detachment the horrific physical symptons of abuse, revealing how the stress of the medical profession leads to the paradox of doctors as users and movingly evoking the pain of seeing a friend suffer. Written with great clarity and tenderness, this is an extraordinary and important book about male friendship and a moving portrait of a brilliant young man who fought valiantly against a profound sense of inadequacy.

Since August 2020, the intimidation of witnesses and journalists has surged in Sri Lanka. Twelve Cries from Home navigates the memories and stories of twelve war survivors, mostly women and relatives of the disappeared, who wished to have their stories retold so that a permanent record might be made, and so that those outside the country might understand their experiences. The outcome of a journey across the island in late 2018 by writer and Professor of Literature Minoli Salgado, who was revisiting her ancestral home, Twelve Cries from Home is deeply-layered and localised work of travelling witness. It returns to the concept of home as a place of belonging and security, which is a lost ideal for most, and uses a Sri Lankan measure of distance - the call, or hoowa - to ask how we might attend to stories that are difficult to tell and to hear. Exploring the bitter complexity of war by presenting stories from four regions of Sri Lanka, it reveals the complex network of relationships between the agents of conflict and their victims, as well as the blurred boundary between victims and perpetrators, the role of informers and the process of ethical repair after traumatic experience. Twelve Cries from Home offers a rare glimpse into a country subject to enforced self-censorship, allowing us to take stock of social and political developments in Sri Lanka and what has and has not been achieved in light of the transitional justice mechanisms promised to the UN.

A beautiful, hopeful account of the grief of heartbreak, based on three true stories, from internationally bestselling author Jessie Stephens. For fans of Three Women and Conversations on Love. Heartbreak does not seem to be a brand of grief we respect. And so we are left in the middle of the ocean, floating in a dinghy with no anchor, while the world waits for us to be okay again. Claire is excited to bring her partner Maggie back home, but even as they build a new life together, she fears a distance is growing between them. Patrick is a lonely university student, until he meets Caitlin - but does she feel as connected as he does? Ana is happily married with three children. Then, one night, she falls in love with someone else. Telling three real-life experiences of love and loss, Heartsick is a compelling narrative non-fiction account of the many lows and occasional surprising highs of heartbreak. Bruising, beautiful, achingly specific but wholeheartedly universal, it reminds us that emotional pain can make us as it breaks us, and that storytelling has the ultimate healing power. 'True stories with a narrative as compelling as any novel' - Jane Harper, author of Exiles

While corporate-funded scientists continue their effort to spread doubt about global warming, for one Native American village in Alaska, the price of further denial could be the complete devastation of their homes and culture. In 2008, the city of Kivalina and a federally recognised tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, tried to sue Exxon Mobil Corporation, eight other oil companies, 14 power companies and one coal company for the cost of relocation (estimated at GBP400 million). The suit was dismissed. Christine Shearer here tells its powerful and tragic story.