Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Gary loved to play basketball from the first moment his hands touched a ball and he dribbled up and down his stairs. He always dreamed of playing point guard on the high school varsity team. Flustered by fights with the town bully, and conflicts with a coach who never gave him a fair shake, Gary transferred to Ashland High for his senior year.

Ashland was a sleepy little farm community in Illinois, it was the place where he had been born. Gary wasn't treated like a new kid at all; he was a wayward friend who'd finally returned home. Everything began to click with his new coach and teammates.

At a time for hot rods, tiny Nash Ramblers, and long black hearses, Elvis had the top hits on radio and the juke boxes. Magically, all the dreams for the purple and white Ashland Panthers basketball team began to come true. "Point Guard" is the story of how it happened way back in 1957.

Stories abound in this book, and a river runs through it. The stories are random and recurring, like memory itself. Family history. A conversation struck up with an old man in a bar. A long ago Pony League team undefeated. A young marine walking in an empty baseball field in Oahu, reading his college acceptance letter. The stories, like the cue balls Pearn describes in another poem, touch each other and change trajectories. The river is the Poudre - born in the Rocky Mountains, eastern slope, flowing through Fort Collins. Pearn gives his readers its colors and its creatures in many lights and seasons. Like memory, it is a place to return to, a source of renewal. There is another force moving these poems, one not found so much in contemporary writing. Call it boundless hope. In his poem "Three Square Meals," Pearn says he "did not have the American dream" because he never wanted to be rich; he just wanted to be a writer. But the American dream is writ large in these poems - true grit and work and the possibility of glory in baseball fields and boot camp - and in poetry. Many of the poems in this book are conversations with poetry and poets that begin in a seventh-grade classroom and are now part of his outlook and his art. The American dream shines in Pearn's memories of Jacksonville, Illinois, in the good days of the 1950s and 60s when there was work in huge and colorful variety for anyone who was willing to do it. But he also tells some 21st centuries stories of hope and struggle. His wife, a recent immigrant from China, confronts the gulf between her education and the jobs available to her. They walk the bureaucratic maze in their efforts to bring her son to the United States. This is a book to read and return to. -Peggy Sower Knoepfle

Few corners of the earth still remain shrouded in secrecy and mystery. Few places are left where Western feet have never trod. Such a region -- of unknown allurements, of strange and savage desert dwellers, of extraordinary skyscraping cities rising like phantoms out of the sand, of shadeless glitter and thirst and wonderment -- is the Hadhramut ("in the presence of death") in southwestern Arabia. Norman Pearn risked his life to visit this unvisited Arabian wonderland, much of which is unmarked on any map, with odds of two thousand to one being laid against the possibility of his return. His remarkable and memorable travel commentary not only adds an important contribution to the romantic story of Arabia, it gives also the personal record of fascinating experiences and adventures while following in the steps of the Queen of Sheba who once ruled this land. Guided by instructions left to him by one of Lawrence of Arabia's lieutenants, Pearn found signal traces of Sheba's past -- the only queen in Arabian history.

The book began as a short story. Later it grew when it became apparent the story would make a fine movie, since the main characters are Red, White and Black and Women. Conflict develops from Male actions. Resolution arrives after the Red, Black, White men fail. There is brutality, tragedy, romance and justice with Natural and Construction locations.

Published in the year 2005, Quest for Sheba is a valuable contribution to the field of Middle Eastern Studies.

Charles Darwin's health improved substantially in 1866 under a dietary and exercise regime prescribed by his physician Henry Bence Jones. With renewed vigour, he worked steadily on his manuscript of Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication, submitting all but the final chapter to his publisher in December. He also worked on the fourth, and much revised, edition of Origin which was delivered to printers in July, and preparations were begun for a third German edition of Origin. His improved health allowed him a more active social life. At Down, Darwin entertained a number of scientific colleagues whom he had known previously only through correspondence. He also made his first appearance in London scientific society in many years, touring the Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park, and appearing at a soiree at the Royal Society.

This book is about mistakes and what we can learn from them. It faces up to, and explains how organizations can escape from 'blame cultures', where fearful conformance and risk avoidance lead to stagnation, to 'gain cultures' which tolerate and even encourage mistakes in the pursuit of innovation, change and improvement. Ending the Blame Culture was written as a result of systematic analysis of the content of over 200 accounts of real mistakes within businesses and organizations. This analysis provides both insight and understanding into the type of mistakes made, the context they were made in and how they helped learning and development. As a result the authors are able to distinguish between intelligent and undesirable mistakes: those which should be tolerated and those which must be avoided. The result is a book which gives sound advice on how individuals learn, practical measures that organizations can adopt to enhance learning through better management of mistakes, and the promotion of a culture which supports and fosters experimentation and risk taking.

Luxuriously illustrated with 92 watercolors, many of which are full page, with the others carefully placed with textual wraparound, this is a marvelous evocation of Carroll's madcap world. Rountree's career as an illustrator was short lived, but this, along with his "Aesop's""Fables, " are acknowledged masterpieces. The enduring popularity of all things Alice makes this both a timely and timeless Calla publication.

Volume 13 contains letters for 1865, the year Charles Darwin published his long paper on climbing plants and continued work on his book, The Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication. 1865 was also the year when Robert FitzRoy committed suicide; Joseph Dalton Hooker became director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; and Charles Lyell and John Lubbock quarrelled over an alleged incident of plagiarism. The volume includes a supplement of over 100 letters discovered or redated since the series began publication, including a fascinating collection written when Darwin was 12.

Resilience is a word that is used in many different ways in different contexts, this new and innovative book focuses on psychological resilience in the workplace, examining other key aspects such as physical health and resilient teams, drawing from the latest research and the authors own practical experience.

Join 13-year-old Jessie as she keeps a diary of her class's yearlong research project on superheroes, which culminates in the Superhero Slam: a head-to-head debate battle in front of the entire school. It's shy, comics-obsessed Jessie's dream come true . . . and worst nightmare. She decides to champion Batgirl, a regular person (albeit with major talent and training under her utility belt), and soon Jessie wonders what it would take to be Batgirl. Will she prove to her best friends, Cade and Audrey, that she's more than a sidekick? Can she take down archenemy Dylan at the Slam?
Combining science facts, lively illustrations, and comic-book trivia with actual correspondence from superhumans such as NYPD Sergeant Mike Bruen, Olympian Clara Hughes, and "Captain Marvel" writer Kelly Sue DeConnick, "Project Superhero" is a celebration of the heroes among us and of one girl's super-secret identity: herself.