Author: Ian Cameron
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arctic regions
Languages : en
Pages : 178
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Book Description
The year is 1907. Professor John Ivarsson's presence is requested by Sir Anthony Ross, whose son, Donald, has disappeared while on expedition in the arctic. An old journal document from a Hudson's Bay trading post tells of a mysterious island, set under a single cloud out on the ice floes, which is the graveyard of the whales, a place known only from folklore and legend. Ross' son had gone in search of the island, but when he didn't return, the letter describing its location was forwarded to him, along with an ancient artifact used for navigation. His interest piqued, Professor Ivarsson agrees to go on the journey.
Author: Russell Shorto
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1400096332
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418
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Book Description
In a riveting, groundbreaking narrative, Russell Shorto tells the story of New Netherland, the Dutch colony which pre-dated the Pilgrims and established ideals of tolerance and individual rights that shaped American history. "Astonishing . . . A book that will permanently alter the way we regard our collective past." --The New York Times When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of its records–recently declared a national treasure–are now being translated. Russell Shorto draws on this remarkable archive in The Island at the Center of the World, which has been hailed by The New York Times as “a book that will permanently alter the way we regard our collective past.” The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yet it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive, young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony. The struggle between these two strong-willed men laid the foundation for New York City and helped shape American culture. The Island at the Center of the World uncovers a lost world and offers a surprising new perspective on our own.
Author: Steven Roger Fischer
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1861894163
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
On a long stretch of green coast in the South Pacific, hundreds of enormous, impassive stone heads stand guard against the ravages of time, war, and disease that have attempted over the centuries to conquer Easter Island. Steven Roger Fischer offers the first English-language history of Easter Island in Island at the End of the World, a fascinating chronicle of adversity, triumph, and the enduring monumentality of the island's stone guards. A small canoe with Polynesians brought the first humans to Easter Island in 700 CE, and when boat travel in the South Pacific drastically decreased around 1500, the Easter Islanders were forced to adapt in order to survive their isolation. Adaptation, Fischer asserts, was a continuous thread in the life of Easter Island: the first European visitors, who viewed the awe-inspiring monolithic busts in 1722, set off hundreds of years of violent warfare, trade, and disease—from the smallpox, wars, and Great Death that decimated the island to the late nineteenth-century Catholic missionaries who tried to "save" it to a despotic Frenchman who declared sole claim of the island and was soon killed by the remaining 111 islanders. The rituals, leaders, and religions of the Easter Islanders evolved with all of these events, and Fischer is just as attentive to the island's cultural developments as he is to its foreign invasions. Bringing his history into the modern era, Fischer examines the colonization and annexation of Easter Island by Chile, including the Rapanui people's push for civil rights in 1964 and 1965, by which they gained full citizenship and freedom of movement on the island. As travel to and interest in the island rapidly expand, Island at the End of the World is an essential history of this mysterious site.
Author: Austin Aslan
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
ISBN: 0385374216
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 386
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Book Description
In this fast-paced survival story set in Hawaii, electronics fail worldwide, the islands become completely isolated, and a strange starscape fills the sky. Leilani and her father embark on a nightmare odyssey from Oahu to their home on the Big Island. Leilani’s epilepsy holds a clue to the disaster, if only they can survive as the islands revert to earlier ways. A powerful story enriched by fascinating elements of Hawaiian ecology, culture, and warfare, this captivating and dramatic debut from Austin Aslan is the first of two novels. The author has a master’s degree in tropical conservation biology from the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Praise for Islands at the End of the World: “A riveting tale of belonging, family, overcoming perceived limitations, and finding a home.”--School Library Journal, Starred "Aslan’s debut honors Hawaii’s unique cultural strengths--family ties and love of home, amplified by geography and history--while remaining true to a genre that affirms the mysterious grandeur of the universe waiting to be discovered."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred "Aslan’s debut is a riveting tale of belonging, family, overcoming perceived limitations, and finding a home."--School Library Journal, Starred
Author: Sam Taylor
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101133511
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 169
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Book Description
A chilling post-apocalyptic tale of how far a father will go to protect his children?from the author of The Amnesiac In a world nearly destroyed by catastrophic floods, one family has been spared. Many years ago, as the waters rose, a father and his three children took to their ark and drifted to the safety of a small island. Life there is a quiet idyll of music and farming?and young Alice, Finn, and Daisy are grateful for their salvation?until the day a stranger swims ashore. A terrifyingly plausible adventure story, The Island at the End of the World is a mesmerizing novel from an exciting new writer.
Author: Scott O'Dell
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0395069629
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 195
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Book Description
Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as the island of San Nicholas. Dolphins flash in the blue waters around it, sea otter play in the vast kep beds, and sea elephants loll on the stony beaches. Here, in the early 1800s, according to history, an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone, and this beautifully written novel is her story. It is a romantic adventure filled with drama and heartache, for not only was mere subsistence on so desolate a spot a near miracle, but Karana had to contend with the ferocious pack of wild dogs that had killed her younger brother, constantly guard against the Aleutian sea otter hunters, and maintain a precarious food supply. More than this, it is an adventure of the spirit that will haunt the reader long after the book has been put down. Karana's quiet courage, her Indian self-reliance and acceptance of fate, transform what to many would have been a devastating ordeal into an uplifting experience. From loneliness and terror come strength and serenity in this Newbery Medal-winning classic.
Author: Michael D. O'Brien
Publisher: Ignatius Press
ISBN: 1586174908
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 847
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Book Description
Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was a political prisoner of the Communist regime in Vietnam for thirteen years, nine of which he spent in solitary confinement. His remarkable faith sustained him during those long years when he would celebrate mass in secret with three drops of wine in the palm of his hand and the host smuggled inside a flashlight by his faithful. His spiritual writings, penned on the back of old calendars, have spread throughout the world inspiring millions. Road of Hope: The Spiritual Journey of Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan is an original Salt and Light documentary exploring the man and his message. This powerful film traces the history of Thuan from his privileged upbringing in a powerful political family to decades of war, betrayal and suffering - all experiences which helped form his singular conviction that "Love Conquers All." Featuring interviews with those who knew him best, never before seen family videos, and rare archival footage of Thuan sharing his most revealing insights, Road of Hope offers an unprecedented glimpse into the life of a modern day martyr and saint.
Author: Jules Verne
Publisher: The Floating Press
ISBN: 1775419363
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 962
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Book Description
Although The Mysterious Island is technically a sequel to Vernes' enormously popular Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, this novel offers a vastly different take on similar thematic motifs. As with all of Verne's best-known works, The Mysterious Island is a masterpiece of the action-adventure genre, with a heaping dash of science fiction influence thrown in for good measure.
Author: Jules Verne
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 080320955X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Book Description
In 1859, three sailors arrive on an isolated island to man a new lighthouse at the wreck-prone tippy tip of South America. They soon discover a band of egregious criminals, led by dangerous evildoer Kongre, who have been tricking ships into running aground, killing the survivors and taking the loot. When two lighthouse men go to assist a ship and are killed, serious trouble ensues.
Author: Gordon Korman
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545630746
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 148
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Book Description
An action-packed survival suspense from bestselling and award-winning author Gordon Korman. Six kids. One shipwreck. One desert island.They didn't want to be on the boat in the first place. They were sent there as punishment, or as a character-building experience. Now the adults are gone, and the quest for survival has begun.
