Great Railway Journeys of Europe

This full-color guide inspires travelers to sample a range of different railway experiences. There are also features on the history and growth of rail travel, railway hotels, feats of engineering, the Channel Tunnel, and much more. (Check Catalog)

Joint Ventures: Inside America's Almost Legal Marijuana Industry

CNBC anchor Trish Regan takes you behind the scenes of America's thriving pot industry, to show readers things only drug dealers know about this secret world Forget amber waves of grain. Today, it's marijuana plants that blanket the nation from sea to shining sea in homes, in backyards, and even in our national parks. In "Joint Ventures, " Trish Regan takes you behind the scenes to explore every aspect of this flourishing underground economy. Her focus is the so-called Emerald Triangle Northern California's Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties where many small-time, part-time marijuana growers contribute to a trade that generates roughly a billion dollars a year.A fascinating investigation into the inner workings of today's exploding American marijuana industryBased on extensive research and interviews by Trish Regan, whose Emmy nominated documentary "Marijuana, Inc." attracted more viewers than any documentary in CNBC's historyRegan examines all aspects of this new culture. She reveals how small time growers get their start, make (or lose) a fortune, struggle with violence, try to keep up with constantly changing laws and regulations all while walking an increasingly fine line with the FedsRegan reports on the current and potential impact of legalized marijuana on local economies, uncovers the link between marijuana and violent Mexican cartels, questions whether decriminalization would work on a national scale, as it has in Portugal since 2001 As the decriminalization and legalization debates gather steam, "Joint Ventures" arms you with the facts on both sides of the issue. (Check Catalog)

Unfair Advantage: The Power of Financial Education

Unfair Advantage – The Power of Financial Education

In Unfair Advantage, Robert Kiyosaki, author of the number one best-selling personal finance book of all time, Rich Dad Poor Dad, tells you what schools will never teach you about money.

He challenges people around to world to stop blindly accepting that they are destined to struggle financially all their lives. True financial education is the path to creating the life you want for yourself and your family. Robert encourages you to change the one thing that is within your control: yourself.

This book is about the power of financial education and the five unfair advantages that a real financial education offers:
· The Unfair Advantage of Knowledge
· The Unfair Advantage of Taxes
· The Unfair Advantage of Debt
· The Unfair Advantage of Risk
· The Unfair Advantage of Compensation

Robert’s fresh approach to his time-tested messages underscores the steps that move education into the applied knowledge that delivers measurable results.

In true Rich Dad style, Unfair Advantage challenges readers to appreciate two points of view and experience how the power of real financial education is their unfair advantage. (Check Catalog)

The Natural Navigator: A Watchful Explorer 's Guide to a Nearly Forgotten Skill

In ancient days, man found his way in the world and over the oceans through solar, lunar, and celestial observation, an art almost lost in a modern world given direction first by compass and cartography and more recently by computer-voiced GPS units. Gooley, a Fellow at the Royal Institute of Navigation, sets out to revive the ancient skills of discerning direction by reading the skyand other forms of natural observationin a book rich with fascinating tips (most tennis courts are aligned north-south to minimize the sun's glare; an outstretched fist doubles as a crude sextant) but freighted with pedantic pedagogy. Determined readers who pass through the thicket of words will be rewarded by a wealth of information. Much of it is commonsensical: pay attention to landmarks; stars in the night sky twinkle, but planets don't. Some of it is informative: moss doesn't always grow on the north side of trees, as many a Boy Scout has been taught. Moments are fascinatingly arcane: the author once determined the direction south by observing a "bird-poo compass." Though too technical for easy reading, Gooley's energetic enthusiasm for the art of natural navigation is just enough compensation. (Mar.) Copyright 2011 Reed Business Information. (Check Catalog)

Cairo: Histories of a City

Cairo, or Al-Qahira, can be translated as both "the victorious" and "the oppressor," explains AlSayyad in his exceptionally absorbing and astute, cultural and architectural history of one of the world's most captivating cities. Professor of architecture, planning, and urban history at UC-Berkeley, AlSayyad structures his book smartly by place rather than strictly by period: each of the 12 chapters brings the reader to a new section of Cairo in an inviting, informed journey through its development. He introduces readers to the history and architecture of, among others, Coptic Cairo; the noted mosques of al-Azhar and a-Anwar; the Gezira Palace; and medieval Cairo. The final chapters, on the eras of Nasser and Mubarak, are especially gripping; AlSayyad warns that the city has been given to a "new elite" and the preservation of old Cairo for tourists is turning it into a Disney-like theme park. An important second thread of the book sees Cairo as inspiration for artists such as Jean-Léon Gérôme and writers Naguib Mahfouz and Alaa Al Aswany. The author's writing is elegantly clear and evocative, drawing the reader into the "messy and difficult" but "vibrant and innovative" city, leaving one wanting to know what he has to say about the politically transformed city's future. 73 color illus. 9 b&w illus.;13 color maps. (Check Catalog)

The Love of My Youth

Thoughtful and moving, Gordon's latest captures the ardor and vulnerability of young love and the cautious circumspection of middle age. Miranda and Adam began a love affair in high school that endured through college only to end in a painful betrayal. When a mutual friend brings them together in present-day Rome, they haven't seen each other in more than three decades. Adam's ambitions to be a concert pianist never came to pass, and Miranda, once convinced that political activism could change the world, is now an epidemiologist. Both have married and raised children, but Rome still holds passionate memories for them. Though wary, they meet for daily walks, and Gordon's vividly detailed descriptions make Rome a palpable presence. Miranda and Adam tentatively reveal to each other the events of their lives, touching on aspirations, disillusionments, ideals, and desires, and these conversations set the pace of Gordon's novel. Only when Miranda is about to leave Rome are they able to fully express their emotions and achieve catharsis. Gordon's (Pearl) restraint is admirable, gradually exposing the differences in character that spelled the inevitable demise of this relationship. An accumulation of detail breathes life into her characters, and the writer's affection for this beloved, eternal city is endearing. (Check Catalog)

Doctor Zhivago

Boris Pasternak's widely acclaimed novel comes gloriously to life in a magnificent new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the award-winning translators of "War and Peace "and" Anna Karenina, "and to whom, " The New York Review of Books" declared, "the English-speaking world is indebted."
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First published in Italy in 1957 amid international controversy--the novel was banned in the Soviet Union until 1988, and Pasternak declined the Nobel Prize a year later under intense pressure from Soviet authorities--"Doctor Zhivago" is the story of the life and loves of a poet-physician during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Taking his family from Moscow to what he hopes will be shelter in the Ural Mountains, Zhivago finds himself instead embroiled in the battle between the Whites and the Reds. Set against this backdrop of cruelty and strife is Zhivago's love for the tender and beautiful Lara: pursued, found, and lost again, Lara is the very embodiment of the pain and chaos of those cataclysmic times.
Stunningly rendered in the spirit of Pasternak's original--resurrecting his style, rhythms, voicings, and tone--and including an introduction, textual annotations, and a translators' note, this edition of "Doctor Zhivago" is destined to become the definitive English translation of our time. (Check Catalog)