Author: Robert Stone
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750964618
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 236
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Book Description
For two decades Robert Stone made his living on the high seas. A modern-day pirate, he was a pioneer saturation oil field diver, involved in fishing, treasure-hunting and, more than anything else, smuggling, which brought him more money than he knew how to spend. Stone spent the last ten of his smuggling years in Africa, where he traded in illicit fuel. The murky waters of the Niger delta were his place of business as he operated in the most corrupt regime in the world, a place ruled by money and guns. Protected by the military, he bought diesel directly from refineries and sold his black cargo to legitimate and illegitimate businesses all over the world, making millions of dollars in the process until his smuggling empire came crashing down thanks to a friend’s betrayal and the US law enforcement. Chasing Black Gold is the incredible true story of Stone’s African fuel smuggling adventure. It is a tale straight out of Hollywood, one which throws the reader into a world where suitcases full of millions in cash are flown around the globe on private jets, where the corrupt practices of Third World governments and military regimes must be mastered, a world of numbered bank accounts and countries of convenience where living under false IDs and money laundering are all in a day’s work.
Author: George M Taber
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1605987115
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 521
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Book Description
For the entire history of human civilization, gold has enraptured people around the globe. The Nazis was no less enthralled by it, and felt that gold was the solution to funding Hitler's war machine. Gold was also on the mind of FDR across the Atlantic, as he worked with Europe's other leaders to bring the United States and the rest of the world out of a severe depression. FDF was hardly the first head of state to turn to gold in difficult times. Throughout history, it has been the refuge of both nations and people in trouble, working at times when nothing else does. Desperate people can buy a loaf of bread or bribe a border guard. Gold can get desperate nations oil to keep tanks running or munitions to fight a war. If the price is right, there is always someone somewhere willing to buy or sell gold. And it was to become the Nazi's most important medium of exchange during the war. Chasing Gold is the story of how the Nazis attempted to grab Europe’s gold to finance history’s bloodiest war. It is filled with high drama and close escapes, laying bare the palate of human emotions. Walking through the tale are giants of world history, as well as ordinary people called upon to undertake heroic action in an extraordinary time.
Author: Blaire Briody
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1466871520
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353
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Book Description
Williston, North Dakota was a sleepy farm town for generations—until the frackers arrived. The oil companies moved into Williston, overtaking the town and setting off a boom that America hadn’t seen since the Gold Rush. Workers from all over the country descended, chasing jobs that promised them six-figure salaries and demanded no prior experience. But for every person chasing the American dream, there is a darker side—reports of violence and sexual assault skyrocketed, schools overflowed, and housing prices soared. Real estate is such a hot commodity that tent cities popped up, and many workers’ only option was to live out of their cars. Farmers whose families had tended the land for generations watched, powerless, as their fields were bulldozed to make way for one oil rig after another. Written in the vein Ted Conover and Jon Krakauer, using a mix of first-person adventure and cultural analysis, The New Wild West is the definitive account of what’s happening on the ground and what really happens to a community when the energy industry is allowed to set up in a town with little regulation or oversight—and at what cost.
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1616143398
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 574
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Book Description
The city states of the Lowlands have lived in peace for decades, bastions of civilization, prosperity and sophistication, protected by treaties, trade and a belief in the reasonable nature of their neighbors. But meanwhile, in far-off corners, the Wasp Empire has been devouring city after city with its highly trained armies, its machines, it killing Art . . . And now its hunger for conquest and war has become insatiable. Only the aging Stenwold Maker, spymaster, artificer and statesman, can see that the long days of peace are over. It falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of his people, before a black-and-gold tide sweeps down over the Lowlands and burns away everything in its path. But first he must stop himself from becoming the Empire's latest victim.
Author: Pamela Binnings Ewen
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
ISBN: 080546431X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 354
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Book Description
When a diligent young female laywer, a resort and casino builder, and a Cambodian refugee's lives collide, anything can happen.
Author: Janci Patterson
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0805093915
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 238
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Book Description
When 15-year-old Ricki's mother finally leaves for good, Ricki's absentee father steps in, taking her with him as he chases bail "skips" across the country. But their fledgling relationship is tested as they pursue attractive, manipulative, 17-year-old Ian Burnham.
Author: Anthony Ervin
Publisher: Akashic Books
ISBN: 1617754641
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
The Olympic swimmer reveals the wild and challenging journey that took place between two gold medals: “Inspiring, humorous, and often profound.”—People Magazine Anthony Ervin is an Olympic swimmer who won the gold at nineteen—and that may be one of the least interesting things about him. An athlete of Jewish and African-American descent who is also a practicing Buddhist, he auctioned off the medal he won in Sydney to help raise funds for victims of the 2004 tsunami. He had grown up battling Tourette’s syndrome, and later struggled with suicidal depression, drinking and drugs, and a period of homelessness. This blend of memoir and biography, written by Ervin in collaboration with trainer Constantine Markides, is part spiritual quest, part self-destructive bender involving Zen temples, fast motorcycles, tattoo parlors, and rock 'n' roll bands—revealing the journey that preceded his remarkable 2016 Olympic comeback as the oldest individual gold medal winner in swimming. Winner of the 2018 Buck Dawson Author Award presented by the International Swimming Hall of Fame “Gripping…Readers will understand the psyche and life of elite athletes as never before.”—Library Journal “A celebrated Olympian recounts how he rose to the top of his sport, crashed, and found redemption…The author never flinches at revealing his less-than-perfect past, and the humility he demonstrates at coming to terms with his own egotism and personal shortcomings makes the book frequently compelling. A provocative and refreshingly honest redemption memoir.”—Kirkus Reviews
Author: Sy Montgomery
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547815492
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 85
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Book Description
Describes the cheetah's essential role in the ecosystem and the ways in which Namibia's Cheetah Conservation Fund is promoting cohabitation between cheetahs and farmers.
Author: Gennifer Choldenko
Publisher: Yearling
ISBN: 0385742541
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
Newbery Honor–winning author Gennifer Choldenko deftly combines humor, tragedy, fascinating historical detail, and a medical mystery in this exuberant new novel. San Francisco, 1900. The Gilded Age. A fantastic time to be alive for lots of people . . . but not thirteen-year-old Lizzie Kennedy, stuck at Miss Barstow’s snobby school for girls. Lizzie’s secret passion is science, an unsuitable subject for finishing-school girls. Lizzie lives to go on house calls with her physician father. On those visits to his patients, she discovers a hidden dark side of the city—a side that’s full of secrets, rats, and rumors of the plague. The newspapers, her powerful uncle, and her beloved papa all deny that the plague has reached San Francisco. So why is the heart of the city under quarantine? Why are angry mobs trying to burn Chinatown to the ground? Why is Noah, the Chinese cook’s son, suddenly making Lizzie question everything she has known to be true? Ignoring the rules of race and class, Lizzie and Noah must put the pieces together in a heart-stopping race to save the people they love. Winner of a Los Angeles Public Library FOCAL (Friends of Children and Literature) Award Nominated for: Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Awards Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award (Middle School division) Missouri Association of School Librarians (MASL) Readers Award California Library Association’s Beatty Award, Eureka List
Author: Blue Balliett
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545541018
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242
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Book Description
Chasing Vermeer joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!When a book of unexplainable occurences brings Petra and Calder together, strange things start to happen: Seemingly unrelated events connect; an eccentric old woman seeks their company; an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the center of an international art scandal, where no one is spared from suspicion. As Petra and Calder are drawn clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth, they must draw on their powers of intuition, their problem solving skills, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Can they decipher a crime that has stumped even the FBI?
