To Get Back Home is a medical thriller of the first order, a true story of triumph and survival over astronomical odds, as an otherwise healthy and active young woman fights for her life after being suddenly stricken by a rare neurological disorder, Acute Demyelinating Encephalomyelitis (ADEM). To Get Back Home takes you on a harrowing journey as Ms. Ford forges her way back from a coma and quadriplegia, desperate to return to her family and young children.

Her life seemed perfect until Wendy Ford was stricken and rendered comatose within days, and then, after a tense weeks-long battle for survival, quadriplegic. At one of the most renowned hospitals in the world, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, the Harvard teaching hospital known as "Harvard with a heart," her doctors Harvard Medical School professors all were helpless to diagnose and treat her, hard as they tried, as the rare malady confounded even them and she slipped further and further away. Initially, she was not expected to live, or, ultimately, to walk again or recover her prior intellectual abilities. Doctors have referred to hers as a miracle case, but the mysteries persist to this day.

"An engaging, moving memoir that unravels at a quick pace. Straightforward and honest, emotional realism is achieved with quiet dignity, making it all the more poignant..."
-Kate Darnton, Contributing Editor,
PublicAffairs

"Impeccably done and so fascinating. Sometimes you read something that's really important and you have to at least try to get it out there..."
-Philip Spitzer, Literary Agent, NY, NY

"A poignant narrative...I was spellbound. You are a role model for your life-affirming persistence..."
-Weston Boer, Writer and Historian

"Immensely valuable to anyone in the clergy as they help people through dire straits."
-The Rev. Susan Flanders, Chevy Chase, MD

"Very moved by your manuscript, which I read from cover to cover, at once...Remarkable..."
-Diana Barrett, Harvard Business School

"Your very desire to live and not die was itself a kind of prayer."
-Professor Kimberley Patton, Harvard Divinity School

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat . . . but 1.4 million NHS staff are heading off to work.

In this perfect present for anyone who has ever set foot in a hospital, Adam Kay delves back into his diaries for a hilarious, horrifying and sometimes heartbreaking peek behind the blue curtain at Christmastime.

This is a love letter to all those who spend their festive season on the front line, removing babies and baubles from the various places they get stuck, at the most wonderful time of the year.

Gee My ’n Mán! handel oor ou Kalahari Gemsbokpark, vanaf die tyd dat hulle nog met kamele gepatrolleer het, die oorlog teen die berugte Witbooi (wat tonele bevat waarvan die leser moeilik sal vergeet) en veldwagter Joep le Riche se avonture en nagmerries in daardie vroeë jare.

Hy was die een wat hom die meeste beywer het vir die proklamering van hierdie gebied as ’n wildtuin en baie jare lank was Joep le Riche die Gemsbokpark en die Gemsbokpark was Joep le Riche.

Humor en swaarkry gaan hand aand hand in hierdie boeiende en insiggewende vertelling.

William H. Foege, one of the most respected leaders in global public health, takes readers on a tour of his time at the CDC. In its seventy years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has evolved from a malaria control program to an institution dedicated to improving health for all people across the world. The Fears of the Rich, The Needs of the Poor is a revealing account of the CDC's development by its former director, public health luminary William H. Foege. Dr. Foege tells the stories of pivotal moments in public health, including the eradication of smallpox (made possible due in part to Foege's research) and the discovery of Legionnaires' disease, Reye syndrome, toxic shock syndrome, and HIV/AIDS. With good humor and optimism, he recounts the various crises he surmounted, from threats of terrorist attacks to contentious congressional hearings and funding cuts. Highlighting the people who made possible some of public health's biggest successes, Foege outlines the work required behind the scenes and describes the occasional tensions between professionals in the field and the politicians in charge of oversight. In recent years, global public health initiatives have come from unanticipated sources. Giants in the field now include President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, who promote programs aimed at neglected diseases. Melinda and Bill Gates have invigorated the field through research and direct program support, especially in the area of vaccine-preventable diseases. And the Merck Mectizan program has dramatically reduced river blindness in Africa. Foege has been involved in all of these efforts, among others, and he brings to this book the knowledge and wisdom derived from a long and accomplished career. The Fears of the Rich, The Needs of the Poor is an inviting but unvarnished account of that career and offers a plethora of lessons for those interested in public health.

'A wonderful connecting of two women writers' stories more than a century apart.' Julia Kuehn, The University of Hong Kong The first-ever biography of the pioneering female journalist who fought to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington, DC Every age has strong, independent women who defy the gender conventions of their era to follow their hearts and minds. Eliza Scidmore was one such maverick. Born on the American frontier just before the Civil War, she rose from modest beginnings to become a journalist who roamed far and wide writing about distant places for readers back home. By her mid-20s she had visited more places than most people would see in a lifetime. By the end of the nineteenth century, her travels were so legendary she was introduced at a meeting in London as "Miss Scidmore, of everywhere." In what has become her best-known legacy, Scidmore carried home from Japan a big idea that helped shape the face of modern Washington: she urged the city's park officials to plant Japanese cherry trees on a reclaimed mud bank-today's Potomac Park. Though they rebuffed her suggestion several times, she finally got her way nearly three decades later thanks to the support of First Lady Helen Taft. Scidmore was a "Forrest Gump" of her day who bore witness to many important events and rubbed elbows with famous people, from John Muir and Alexander Graham Bell to U.S presidents and Japanese leaders. She helped popularize Alaska tourism during the birth of the cruise industry, and educated readers about Japan and other places in the Far East at a time of expanding U.S. interests across the Pacific. At the early National Geographic, she made a lasting mark as the first woman to serve on its board and to publish photographs in the magazine. Around the same time, she also played an activist role in the burgeoning U.S. conservation movement. Her published work includes books on Alaska, Japan, Java, China, and India; a novel based on the Russo-Japanese War; and about 800 articles in U.S. newspapers and magazines. Deeply researched and briskly written, this first-ever biography of Scidmore draws heavily on her own writings to follow major events of a half-century as seen through the eyes of a remarkable woman who was far ahead of her time.

With over fifty patents to his name and innumerable awards and accolades, James Lovelock was a distinguished and original thinker, widely recognized by the international scientific community. In this inspiring book, republished in the year of his 100th birthday, Lovelock tells his life story, from his first steps as a scientist to his work with organisations as diverse as NASA, Shell and the Marine Biological Association. Homage to Gaia describes the years of travel and work that led to his crucial scientific breakthroughs in environmental awareness, uncovering how CFCs impact on the ozone layer and creating the concept of Gaia, the theory that the Earth is a self-regulating system. Written in a sharp and energetic style, James Lovelock's book will entertain and inspire anyone interested in science or the creative spirit beyond his legacy.

An account from the frontline of fertility treatment, giving a unique insight into not only the medical and scientific advances involved but the human cost and rewards behind this life-changing technology. Simon Fishel worked with Robert Edwards during his pioneering early IVF research and was part of the team in the world's first IVF clinic, with all the trials and tribulations that involved at the time, including a writ for murder! As the science developed over the decades so did his career, as he sought to do more for patients and taught the new technologies to doctors all over the world. He came up against regulatory and establishment barriers, including fighting a 3-year legal case in the High Court of Justice and a death threat from a doctor if he refused to work with him. The clinic he founded has grown into the largest IVF group in the UK, developing exciting new procedures, and he has helped establish clinics throughout the world, even being invited to introduce IVF to China.

V. I. Keilis-Borok (1921-2013) is the founder of computational seismology and the pioneer of advance predictions of critical events in complex systems, including earthquakes, presidential elections, economic recessions, surges of unemployment, and crime waves. Among his successful advance earthquake predictions are Irpinia earthquake in Italy (1980), Loma Prieta earthquake in California (1989), Chile earthquake of 2010, Japan earthquake of 2011, and many others.
V. I. Keilis-Borok developed new paradigms in the study of structure and dynamics of solid Earth. His trademark style involved exceptional organizational talent and insight that enabled him to make seemingly impossible connections between different fields of research and different groups of experts, often breaking the barriers between high theory, numerical modeling, and data analysis.
His outstanding achievements are recognized by memberships in many academies and international scientific organizations, including National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Academia Europea, Royal Astronomical Society, and others, as well as through awards and honors, and by the respect and devotion he inspired in his friends and colleagues.
This book contains his brief biography and reflections by his family, friends, and colleagues-a tribute to this truly remarkable man.
Proceeds from this book will support the effort in promoting and publicizing V.I. Keilis-Borok's work.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2022 BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY After a few billion years of bearing witness to life on Earth, of watching one hundred billion humans go about their day-to-day lives, of feeling unbelievably lonely, and of hearing its own story told by others, The Milky Way would like a chance to speak for itself. All one hundred billion stars and fifty undecillion tons of gas of it. It all began some thirteen billion years ago, when clouds of gas scattered through the universe's primordial plasma just could not keep their metaphorical hands off each other. They succumbed to their gravitational attraction, and the galaxy we know as the Milky Way was born. Since then, the galaxy has watched as dark energy pushed away its first friends, as humans mythologized its name and purpose, and as galactic archaeologists have worked to determine its true age (rude). The Milky Way has absorbed supermassive (an actual technical term) black holes, made enemies of a few galactic neighbors, and mourned the deaths of countless stars. Our home galaxy has even fallen in love. After all this time, the Milky Way finally feels that it's amassed enough experience for the juicy tell-all we've all been waiting for. Its fascinating autobiography recounts the history and future of the universe in accessible but scientific detail, presenting a summary of human astronomical knowledge thus far that is unquestionably out of this world.

This twenty-sixth volume of "Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies" brings together essays on leading figures in time geography and regional theory, on GIS, on regional, cultural and political geography, on scriptural geography, historical geography and methodology, and on African exploration. Each essay engages with the individual's contribution to geography, their works and their lives and the intellectual and social contexts in which they worked and which helped shape them. In addition - and to mark the new co-editorial pairing leading the series - the volume has an essay on the history of GBS, on the importance of biographical work in the history of geography and on issues to be addressed by the scholarly communities engaged in promoting this vital area of geographical research.

'A witty, gossipy, sparkling history, full of bright jewels of anecdote... Magnificent Rebels is a triumph' THE TIMES, Book of the Week 'Extraordinary... A thrilling intellectual history that reads like a racy, intelligent novel, with a cast of unforgettable characters' SUNDAY TIMES 'Magnificent Rebels is a magnificent book: a revelation which could easily become an obsession' SPECTATOR 'A thrilling page-turner, by turns comical & tragic... My book of the year so far' TOM HOLLAND 'Elegantly written, deeply researched and totally gripping' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE In the 1790s an extraordinary group of friends changed the world. Disappointed by the French Revolution's rapid collapse into tyranny, what they wanted was nothing less than a revolution of the mind. The rulers of Europe had ordered their peoples how to think and act for too long. Based in the small German town of Jena, through poetry, drama, philosophy and science, they transformed the way we think about ourselves and the world around us. They were the first Romantics. Their way of understanding the world still frames our lives and being.We're still empowered by their daring leap into the self. We still think with their minds, see with their imagination and feel with their emotions. We also still walk the same tightrope between meaningful self-fulfilment and destructive narcissism, between the rights of the individual and our role as a member of our community and our responsibilities towards future generations who will inhabit this planet. This extraordinary group of friends changed our world. It is impossible to imagine our lives, thoughts and understanding without the foundation of their ground-breaking ideas.

Having practiced yoga for more than thirty years, Audrey Pearson had always felt fit, strong, and flexible. Then one day in October of 2004, she awoke to flu-like symptoms, unable to move her limbs. These symptoms never decreased and only inflated. She was diagnosed with Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR), a mysterious autoimmune disease; and was treated with the steroid drug Prednisone.

Written in diary format, My Four-Year PMR & Prednisone Challenge describes Pearson's daily struggle not only with the disease but with managing steroid treatment and her painful journey of withdrawing from Prednisone use. She attributes her successful recovery to her long-term practice of yoga, a gentle way to optimize the flow of life energy to help a person feel their personal best at any given time. The yoga practices helped her understand the counterintuitive healing purpose of the presence of the autoimmune disease in her life.

Though the four-year experience was difficult, Pearson realized that PMR was an important and strict teacher who arrived at her door to teach her tolerance and acceptance. In My Four-Year PMR & Prednisone Challenge, Pearson relates how PMR and Prednisone withdrawal was tolerated, embraced, and experienced as an opportunity for personal and spiritual transformation.

On December 7, 2004, Dan D'Andrea suffered a life-changing injury on a construction job site. Follow Melanie and her husband Dan as they make their journey from catastrophe to ultimate triumph. Written by Melanie from her point of view, this is their story.

Careers and life can have many twists and turns. The external environment constantly changes and these changes are beyond the control of most of us. Sometimes we have to alter our careers and our goals in order to survive. Change, however, creates opportunities and we must prepare ourselves to be ready to seize opportunities that come our way.

Dr. Jack Kushner's story reads like another version of Forrest Gump. He was present when civil rights history was made in the South with Rosa Parks. He grew up and played street football with Bart Starr. He volunteered for surgical service in Vietnam. And he was a doctor in the ER when four little girls, victims of the horrible church bombing, were brought in. He has experienced all of these events and more in his fascinating life in addition to making important changes in his careers throughout his life. He believes that to survive and thrive in life, it is imperative to differentiate yourself to be competitive in today's challenging marketplace. In "Coping Successfully with Changing Tides and Winds," Kushner offers practical advice to anyone facing job loss or changes.