Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be given your own remote islands? Thirty years ago it happened to Adam Nicolson. Aged 21, Nicolson inherited the Shiants, three lonely Hebridean islands set in a dangerous sea off the Isle of Lewis. With only a stone bothy for accommodation and half a million puffins for company, he found himself in charge of one of the most beautiful places on earth. The story of the Shiants is a story of birds and boats, hermits and fishermen, witchcraft and catastrophe, and Nicolson expertly weaves these elements into his own tale of seclusion on the Shiants to create a stirring celebration of island life.

Fat cigars, big cars, dirty money, vibrant music, intellectual ferment. Havana, since its creation in 1535, has long offered a unique, bewildering mix of the backward and the hip, the seedy and the sophisticated. In many respects, it shares the characteristics of other colonial or post-colonial cities of the Caribbean and Latin America. But at the same time, Havana created its own niche both as an international city and a dynamic national capital. Despite Cuba's fluctuating fortunes, Havana has always managed to thrive and develop its own unique character as an urban, social, economic, cultural and political site. Havana offers a sweeping account of the city and its cultural development, focusing especially on the last two centuries and on the role played by the city's cultural communities in the search for national identity. The author introduces us to a marginal city with roots in the sixteenth century, taking us through the periods when it was a sugar boomtown, pulled between empires, a decadent metropolis, a site of both cultural revolution and relative stagnation during the development of the Revolution to its revival in the 1990s. He looks at the often creative tensions between external influences (especially Spain, France and the United States) and indigenous cultural pressures. Areas covered include architecture, literature, music, dance, cinema and the press. Cosmopolitan playground and nationalist vanguard, Havana has developed its own style while at the same time both reflecting and directing the complicated politics of the whole of Cuba. This book offers a concise introduction to one of the most intriguing cities of the twenty-first century.

This must-have third revised and newly expanded edition of the only single reference source for information about state symbols features over 300 information updates plus three new chapters, updated license plate illustrations, and a newly formatted design for ease of use. Libraries that hold earlier editions of this work need this edition to keep their information on the states and territories current. With the addition of new chapters on state and territory universities, state and territory governors throughout U.S. history, state professional sports teams, and a complete revision of the chapter on state and territory fairs and festivals, the work now totals 17 chapters of essential information that is a treasure trove for students.

This completed redesigned reference work features chapters on state and territory names and nicknames, mottoes, seals, flags, capitals, flowers, trees, birds, songs, legal holidays and observances, license plates, postage stamps, miscellaneous designations, fairs and festivals, universities, governors, professional sports teams, and a bibliography of state and territory histories. The work features full-color illustrations of every state and territory seal, flag, flower, tree, bird, commemorative postage stamp, and license plate (updated for this edition).

Although the topic of travel and travel writing by Chinese and Japanese writers has recently begun to attract more interest among scholars in the West, it remains largely virgin terrain with vast tracts awaiting scholarly examination. This book offers insights into how East Asians traveled in the early modern and modern periods, what they looked for, what they felt comfortable finding, and the ways in which they wrote up their impressions of these experiences.