"A guide to the nation's great national parks and their best hikes, ranging from short day hikes to backpacking treks and featuring scenic vistas, waterfalls, and information on lodging opportunities. Includes color photographs throughout"--

"A celebrated Irish writer's magisterial, brilliantly insightful chronicle of the wrenching transformations that dragged his homeland into the modern world. Fintan O'Toole was born in the year the revolution began. It was 1958, and the Irish government--in despair, because all the young people were leaving--opened the country to foreign investment and popular culture. So began a decades-long, ongoing experiment with Irish national identity. In We...

"In November 1878, America's greatest painter sued England's greatest critic for a bad review. The painter won--but ruined himself in the process. The painter: James Abbot MacNeill Whistler, whose combination of incredible talent, unflagging energy, and relentless self-promotion had by that time brought him to the very edge of artistic preeminence. The critic: John Ruskin, Slade Professor of Art at Oxford University, whose four-decades' worth of prolific...

From the man who made a name for himself as a founding member and lead guitarist of Jefferson Airplane comes a memoir that offers a rare glimpse into the heart and soul of a musical genius--and a vivid journey through the psychedelic era in America. “Music is the reward for being alive,” writes Jorma Kaukonen in this candid and emotional account of his life and work. “It stirs memory in a singular way that is unmatched.” In a career that has...

The Iraq War veteran traces her impoverished childhood, her decision to join the Army, the months spent recovering from the RPG attack that shot down her helicopter and nearly took her life, and her subsequent mission of serving in elected office. Daughter of an American father and a Thai-Chinese mother, Duckworth faced discrimination, poverty, and the horrors of war, all before the age of 16. Through these experiences she developed a fierce resilience...

The greatest unsolved mystery of the American Southwest is the fate of the Anasazi, the native peoples who in the eleventh century converged on Chaco Canyon (in today's northwestern New Mexico) and built a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world. The Anasazis' accomplishments--in agriculture, art, commerce, architecture, and engineering--were astounding, as remarkable in their...

Veteran outdoor enthusiasts Robert and Martha Manning invite readers to experience the joy of walking in Walks of a Lifetime. They offer firsthand descriptions of thirty of the world's great long-distance trails and multiday walks, including personal anecdotes, natural and cultural history, practical tips, and full-color photographs and maps. Walks range from inn-to-inn routes to backpacking treks and are found across North America, Europe, Asia,...

"America's sixty-three national parks are made up of the greatest geographical, geological, and ecological wonders on the planet, and some of their treasures are only available to those willing to walk past the trailhead for just a mile or two. Featuring spectacular photography and information, this book allows you to experience each park up close. Hikes range from half-mile nature walks on accessible boardwalks to strenuous full-day hikes to multiday...

From one of America's most beloved poets, a piercing new collection reflecting on the characters and encounters that haunt us through this life and into the next. Leading us into a city stirring with gravediggers and beggars, lovers and dogs, Charles Simic returns with a brilliant collection full of his singular wit, dark humor, and tenderheartedness. In poems that are often as spare as they are monumental, he captures the fleeting moments of modern...

Jaded by the marriages unraveling all around him, Mathew Boggs was a young man who'd lost all belief in lifelong love. Chauffeuring his grandparents grandfather on weekly adventures, he realized that, 63 years later, they were still madly in love."Now, that's the marriage I want!" he said to himself. Hoping to find more success stories, Mat talked his best friend, Jason Miller, a commitmentphobe, into joining him on a cross-country search for America's...