A Wonderful Country

A Wonderful Country PDF Author: Bill Magie
Publisher: Raven Productions
ISBN: 9780967705781
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
"When Bill Magie began taking canoe trips in the wild country along the Minnesota-Ontario border, there were places where the lakes were so crowded with logs heading to the mill, that his group put their gear on a horse-drawn wagon to portage to a spot where they could paddle. There were other places where they could travel for two or three weeks and see no except an occasional Indian family. Bill's stories originate from the Canoe Country -- today's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Voyageur National Park, and Quetico Provincial Park. But they are not the dry facts of the past. (Some would argue that there are few facts to be found in these stories!) Instead, they are full of the elements that still draw us to this wilderness area today -- wolf howls, sparkling water, storms, solitude, stillness, adventurous undertakings, relics of bygone days, campfires and camaraderie. Take this book on your next canoe trip, and imagine Bill has joined you, spinning tales of lumberjacks and trappers, surveying the border, flying bush planes when flying at all was a novelty, camping before nylon and plastic and freeze-dried food, hunting and fishing when you succeeded or went hungry. Find stories about the places you visit: Curtain Falls, Prairie Portage, Granite River, Knife Lake, Basswood, Saganaga -- and so many more. And know that the spirit of those who have loved this place lives on as today's paddlers discover what a wonderful country this is"--Front flap.

A Wonderful Country

A Wonderful Country PDF Author: Bill Magie
Publisher: Raven Productions
ISBN: 9780967705781
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
"When Bill Magie began taking canoe trips in the wild country along the Minnesota-Ontario border, there were places where the lakes were so crowded with logs heading to the mill, that his group put their gear on a horse-drawn wagon to portage to a spot where they could paddle. There were other places where they could travel for two or three weeks and see no except an occasional Indian family. Bill's stories originate from the Canoe Country -- today's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Voyageur National Park, and Quetico Provincial Park. But they are not the dry facts of the past. (Some would argue that there are few facts to be found in these stories!) Instead, they are full of the elements that still draw us to this wilderness area today -- wolf howls, sparkling water, storms, solitude, stillness, adventurous undertakings, relics of bygone days, campfires and camaraderie. Take this book on your next canoe trip, and imagine Bill has joined you, spinning tales of lumberjacks and trappers, surveying the border, flying bush planes when flying at all was a novelty, camping before nylon and plastic and freeze-dried food, hunting and fishing when you succeeded or went hungry. Find stories about the places you visit: Curtain Falls, Prairie Portage, Granite River, Knife Lake, Basswood, Saganaga -- and so many more. And know that the spirit of those who have loved this place lives on as today's paddlers discover what a wonderful country this is"--Front flap.

A Good Country

A Good Country PDF Author: Sofia Ali-Khan
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 059323703X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
A leading advocate for social justice excavates the history of forced migration in the twelve American towns she’s called home, revealing how White supremacy has fundamentally shaped the nation. “At a time when many would rather ban or bury the truth, Ali-Khan bravely faces it in this bracing and necessary book.”—Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Homeland Elegies Sofia Ali-Khan’s parents emigrated from Pakistan to America, believing it would be a good country. With a nerdy interest in American folk history and a devotion to the rule of law, Ali-Khan would pursue a career in social justice, serving some of America’s most vulnerable communities. By the time she had children of her own—having lived, worked, and worshipped in twelve different towns across the nation—Ali-Khan felt deeply American, maybe even a little extra American for having seen so much of the country. But in the wake of 9/11, and on the cusp of the 2016 election, Ali-Khan’s dream of a good life felt under constant threat. As the vitriolic attacks on Islam and Muslims intensified, she wondered if the American dream had ever applied to families like her own, and if she had gravely misunderstood her home. In A Good Country, Ali-Khan revisits the color lines in each of her twelve towns, unearthing the half-buried histories of forced migration that still shape every state, town, and reservation in America today. From the surprising origins of America’s Chinatowns, the expulsion of Maroon and Seminole people during the conquest of Florida, to Virginia’s stake in breeding humans for sale, Ali-Khan reveals how America’s settler colonial origins have defined the law and landscape to maintain a White America. She braids this historical exploration with her own story, providing an intimate perspective on the modern racialization of American Muslims and why she chose to leave the United States. Equal parts memoir, history, and current events, A Good Country presents a vital portrait of our nation, its people, and the pathway to a better future.

Beautiful Country

Beautiful Country PDF Author: Qian Julie Wang
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593313003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world—an incandescent debut from an astonishing new talent • A TODAY SHOW #READWITHJENNA PICK In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian’s parents were professors; in America, her family is “illegal” and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive. In Chinatown, Qian’s parents labor in sweatshops. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first American friends. And where there is delight to be found, Qian relishes it: her first bite of gloriously greasy pizza, weekly “shopping days,” when Qian finds small treasures in the trash lining Brooklyn’s streets, and a magical Christmas visit to Rockefeller Center—confirmation that the New York City she saw in movies does exist after all. But then Qian’s headstrong Ma Ma collapses, revealing an illness that she has kept secret for months for fear of the cost and scrutiny of a doctor’s visit. As Ba Ba retreats further inward, Qian has little to hold onto beyond his constant refrain: Whatever happens, say that you were born here, that you’ve always lived here. Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light.

The Wonderful Country

The Wonderful Country PDF Author: Tom Lea
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1787205703
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
Originally published in 1952, Tom Lea’s The Wonderful Country opens as mejicano pistolero Martín Bredi is returning to El Puerto (El Paso) after a fourteen-year absence. Bredi carries a gun for the Chihuahuan warlord Cipriano Castro and is on Castro’s business in Texas. Fourteen years earlier—shortly after the end of the Civil War—when he was the boy Martin Brady, he killed the man who murdered his father and fled to Mexico where he became Martín Bredi. Back in Texas Brady breaks a leg; then he falls in love with a married woman while recuperating; and, finally, to right another wrong, he kills a man. When Brady/Bredi returns to Mexico, the Castros distrust him as an American. He becomes a man without a country. The Wonderful Country clearly depicts life along the Texas-Mexico border of a century-and-a-half ago, when Texas and Mexico were being settled and tamed.

Factfulness

Factfulness PDF Author: Hans Rosling
Publisher: Flatiron Books
ISBN: 125012381X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “One of the most important books I’ve ever read—an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates “Hans Rosling tells the story of ‘the secret silent miracle of human progress’ as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” —Melinda Gates "Factfulness by Hans Rosling, an outstanding international public health expert, is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases." - Former U.S. President Barack Obama Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. --- “This book is my last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance...Previously I armed myself with huge data sets, eye-opening software, an energetic learning style and a Swedish bayonet for sword-swallowing. It wasn’t enough. But I hope this book will be.” Hans Rosling, February 2017.

The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom

The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom PDF Author: John Pomfret
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 1429944129
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 705

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Book Description
A remarkable history of the two-centuries-old relationship between the United States and China, from the Revolutionary War to the present day From the clipper ships that ventured to Canton hauling cargos of American ginseng to swap Chinese tea, to the US warships facing off against China's growing navy in the South China Sea, from the Yankee missionaries who brought Christianity and education to China, to the Chinese who built the American West, the United States and China have always been dramatically intertwined. For more than two centuries, American and Chinese statesmen, merchants, missionaries, and adventurers, men and women, have profoundly influenced the fate of these nations. While we tend to think of America's ties with China as starting in 1972 with the visit of President Richard Nixon to China, the patterns—rapturous enchantment followed by angry disillusionment—were set in motion hundreds of years earlier. Drawing on personal letters, diaries, memoirs, government documents, and contemporary news reports, John Pomfret reconstructs the surprising, tragic, and marvelous ways Americans and Chinese have engaged with one another through the centuries. A fascinating and thrilling account, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom is also an indispensable book for understanding the most important—and often the most perplexing—relationship between any two countries in the world.

Country Girl

Country Girl PDF Author: Edna O'Brien
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316230367
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
"Country Girl is Edna O'Brien's exquisite account of her dashing, barrier-busting, up-and-down life."-National Public Radio When Edna O'Brien's first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960, it so scandalized the O'Briens' local parish that the book was burned by its priest. O'Brien was undeterred and has since created a body of work that bears comparison with the best writing of the twentieth century. Country Girl brings us face-to-face with a life of high drama and contemplation. Starting with O'Brien's birth in a grand but deteriorating house in Ireland, her story moves through convent school to elopement, divorce, single-motherhood, the wild parties of the '60s in London, and encounters with Hollywood giants, pop stars, and literary titans. There is love and unrequited love, and the glamour of trips to America as a celebrated writer and the guest of Jackie Onassis and Hillary Clinton. Country Girl is a rich and heady accounting of the events, people, emotions, and landscape that have imprinted upon and enhanced one lifetime.

Across the Big Country

Across the Big Country PDF Author: G. Harrison Olesen
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780394825199
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
An alphabet adventure with Donald Duck.

God, Country, Notre Dame

God, Country, Notre Dame PDF Author: Theodore M. Hesburgh C.S.C.
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268088047
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
I have traveled far and wide, far beyond the simple parish I envisioned as a young man. My obligation of service has led me into diverse yet interrelated roles: college teacher, theologian, president of a great university, counselor to four popes and six presidents. Excuse the list, but once called to public service, I have held fourteen presidential appointments over the years, dealing with the social issues of our times, including civil rights, peaceful uses of atomic energy, campus unrest, amnesty for Vietnam offenders, Third World development, and immigration reform. But deep beneath it all, wherever I have been, whatever I have done, I have always and everywhere considered myself essentially a priest. —from the Preface

Love of Country

Love of Country PDF Author: Madeleine Bunting
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022647173X
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
“Excellent . . . Almost the perfect marriage of travelogue to the inner landscape of political ideas and cultural reflections . . . a super read.” —New Statesman Few landscapes are as striking as that of the Hebrides, the hundreds of small islands that speckle the waters off Scotland’s northwest coast. The jagged, rocky cliffs and roiling waves serve as a reminder of the islands’ dramatic geological history. Facing the Atlantic, the Hebrides were at the center of ancient shipping routes and have a remarkable cultural history. After years of hearing about Scotland as a place interwoven with the story of her family, Madeleine Bunting went to see for herself this place so full of history. Over six years, Bunting returned again and again to the Hebrides, fascinated by the question of what it means to belong there. With great sensitivity, she takes readers through the Hebrides’ history of dispossession and displacement, a history that can be understand only in the context of Britain’s imperial past, and she shows how the Hebrides have been repeatedly used to define and imagine Britain. Love of Country is a revelatory journey through one of the world’s most remote, beautiful landscapes that encourages us to think of the many identities we wear as we walk our paths. “A remarkably thorough digest of the many histories of the Hebrides.” —Wall Street Journal “Moving and wonderful. . . . Both the author and reader of this book end up losing themselves not just in politics and history and the details of nature, but a sense of wonder” —The Guardian “Makes you feel you are there even if you have just left.” —Observer, Best Books of the Year