Download or read book The Simple Art of Flying written by Cory Leonardo and published by Aladdin. This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Delightfully quirky.” —Kirkus Reviews Perfect for fans of The One and Only Ivan, this irresistible debut novel combines plucky humor and a whole lot of heart in a story about the true meaning of family. Sometimes flying means keeping your feet on the ground… Born in a dismal room in a pet store, Alastair the African grey parrot dreams of escape to bluer skies. He’d like nothing more than to fly away to a palm tree with his beloved sister, Aggie. But when Aggie is purchased by twelve-year-old Fritz, and Alastair is adopted by elderly dance-enthusiast and pie-baker Albertina Plopky, the future looks ready to crash-land. In between anxiously plucking his feathers, eating a few books, and finding his own poetic voice, Alastair plots his way to a family reunion. But soon he’s forced to choose between the life he’s always dreamed of and admitting the truth: that sometimes, the bravest adventure is in letting go.

Download or read book Call Me Alastair written by Cory Leonardo and published by Scholastic UK. This book was released on 2019-02-07 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A funny, heart-shattering novel about a fierce parrot, a big-hearted boy and a spirited elderly widow, all learning to live fully-fledged lives. Born in the back of a pet store, Alastair the African grey parrot dreams of escape, to fly off with his beloved sister, Aggie. But when Aggie is purchased by 12-year-old Fritz, and Alastair is adopted by Mrs Albertina Plopky, Alastair's hopeful vision for the future crash-lands. In-between anxiously plucking his feathers, chewing a few books, and finding his own poetic voice, Alastair plots his way to Aggie and their flight to freedom. This debut novel is a heart-felt, bird's-eye view of love and what it means to break free from the cages we build for ourselves - and the courage it may take to finally let go.

Download or read book Terminal World written by Alastair Reynolds and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2021-12-21 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last surviving human city, an ex-spy gets sucked into a dangerous quest that will take him beyond the city walls when a winged man turns up dead in his morgue in this innovative and original dystopian space adventure. Spearpoint, the last human city, is an enormous atmosphere-piercing spire. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different—and rigidly enforced—level of technology. Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon's world is wrenched apart one more time, for the angel is a winged posthuman from Spearpoint's Celestial Levels—and with the dying body comes bad news. If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint's base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon's own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police, but by the very nature of reality—and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability . . .

Download or read book Pushing Ice written by Alastair Reynolds and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pushing Ice is the brilliant tale of extraordinary aliens, glittering technologies, and sweeping space opera from award-winning science fiction author Alastair Reynolds. 2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it. The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed. As layers of camouflage fall away, it becomes clear that Janus was never a moon in the first place. It's some kind of machine -- and it is now headed toward a fuzzily glimpsed artifact 260 light-years away. The Rockhopper is the only ship anywhere near Janus, and Bella Lind is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach. In accepting this mission, she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny -- for Janus has more surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome.

Download or read book No Great Mischief written by Alistair MacLeod and published by Emblem Editions. This book was released on 2012-01-11 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander MacDonald guides us through his family’s mythic past as he recollects the heroic stories of his people: loggers, miners, drinkers, adventurers; men forever in exile, forever linked to their clan. There is the legendary patriarch who left the Scottish Highlands in 1779 and resettled in “the land of trees,” where his descendents became a separate Nova Scotia clan. There is the team of brothers and cousins, expert miners in demand around the world for their dangerous skills. And there is Alexander and his twin sister, who have left Cape Breton and prospered, yet are haunted by the past. Elegiac, hypnotic, by turns joyful and sad, No Great Mischief is a spellbinding story of family, loyalty, exile, and of the blood ties that bind us, generations later, to the land from which our ancestors came.

Download or read book Orion Lost written by Alastair Chisholm and published by Nosy Crow. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The transport ship Orion is four months out of Earth when catastrophe strikes - leaving the ship and everyone on board stranded in deep space Suddenly it's up to thirteen-year-old Beth and her friends to navigate through treacherous and uncharted territory to reach safety. But a heavily-damaged ship, space pirates, a mysterious alien species, and an artificial intelligence that Beth doesn't know if she can trust means that getting home has never been so difficult... Hugely gripping, with incredible twists and a fast-paced, action-packed story, this is an unputdownable science fiction adventure - perfect for fans of Star Wars.

Download or read book Alistair Cooke s America written by Alistair Cooke and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2023-03-15 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new edition of Alistair Cooke's classic work, which has sold ore than 2 million copies to date. Full of Cooke's signature wit and wisdom, this is a lucid and illuminating history of the United States. Republished to mark the 50th anniversary of the classic BBC series.

Download or read book Adam 2 written by Alastair Chisholm and published by Nosy Crow. This book was released on 2021-08-05 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With incredible twists and turns and an action-packed story, this is a thrilling, unputdownable adventure. The robot Adam-2 has been locked in the basement of a lost building for over two hundred years - until one day he is discovered by two children, and emerges into a world ruined by a civil war between humans and advanced intelligence. Hunted by both sides, Adam discovers that he holds the key to the war, and the power to end it - to destroy one side and save the other. But which side is right? Surrounded by enemies who want to use him, and allies who mistrust him, Adam must decide who - and what - he really is. From the author of the highly-acclaimed Orion Lost, Adam-2 is an exciting and hugely gripping science fiction thriller - perfect for fans of Eoin Colfer, Anthony Horowitz, and Philip Reeve. "Brilliant - one of the best middle grade books I've read this year ... Action, tension, a marvellous mix of characters, and incredibly thought-provoking while being huge fun to read. What more could you want?" - Jennifer Killick, author of Crater Lake

Download or read book Chasm City written by Alastair Reynolds and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 693 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Return to the dazzling world of Revelation Space with this British Science Fiction Award-winning space opera about a young man hell-bent on revenge on the surface of a twisted, disease-corrupted planet. The once-utopian Chasm City -- a domed human settlement on an otherwise inhospitable planet -- has been overrun by a virus known as the Melding Plague, capable of infecting any body, organic or computerized. Now, with the entire city corrupted -- from the people to the very buildings they inhabit -- only the most wretched sort of existence remains. For security operative Tanner Mirabel, it is the landscape of nightmares through which he searches for a lowlife postmortal killer. But the stakes are raised when his search brings him face to face with a centuries-old atrocity that history would rather forget. One of Locus and Science Fiction Chronicle's "Best SF Novels of the Year"

Download or read book Moods of Future Joys written by Alastair Humphreys and published by Eye Books (US&CA). This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An updated edition including new color photographs and a new afterword looking back at the journeyAlastair Humphreys' around-the-world journey of 46,000 miles was an old-fashioned adventure: long, lonely, low-budget, and spontaneous. Cycling across five continents and sailing over the oceans, his ride took four years to complete, on a tiny budget of hoarded student loans. Here is the story of the first remarkable stage of the expedition. Just two weeks into the ride the September 11th attacks changed everything. All Humphreys' plans went out the window and, instead of riding towards Australia, he suddenly found himself pedaling through the Middle East and Africa and on toward Cape Town. This book recounts an epic journey that succeeded through Humphreys' trust in the kindness of strangers, at a time where the interactions of our global community are more confused and troubled than ever.

Download or read book Century Rain written by Alastair Reynolds and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-05-30 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An awe-inspiring novel from the award-winning author of the Revelation Space series... “Century Rain fuses time-travel, hard SF, alternate history, interstellar adventure and noir romance to create a novel of blistering powers and style.”—SF Revu Three hundred years from now, Earth has been rendered uninhabitable due to the technological catastrophe known as the Nanocaust. Archeologist Verity Auger specializes in the exploration of its surviving landscape. Now, her expertise is required for a far greater purpose. Something astonishing has been discovered at the far end of a wormhole: mid-twentieth century Earth, preserved like a fly in amber. Somewhere on this alternate planet is a device capable of destroying both worlds at either end of the wormhole. And Verity must find the device, and the man who plans to activate it, before it is too late—for the past and the future of two worlds…

Download or read book 24 Hours in Nowhere written by Dusti Bowling and published by Union Square & Co.. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Reminiscent of Louis Sachar’s Holes with its quirky characters and unique desert setting, this is a middle-grade read that will easily transport readers somewhere special.” —School Library Journal (Starred review) When you come from Nowhere, can you ever really make it anywhere? Author Dusti Bowling (Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus) returns to the desert to create a gripping story about friendship, hope, and finding the power we all have within ourselves.​ Welcome to Nowhere, Arizona, the least livable town in the United States. For Gus, a bright 13-year-old with dreams of getting out and going to college, life there is made even worse by Bo Taylor, Nowhere’s biggest, baddest bully. When Bo tries to force Gus to eat a dangerously spiny cactus, Rossi Scott, one of the best racers in Nowhere, comes to his rescue—but in return she has to give Bo her prized dirt bike. Determined to buy it back, Gus agrees to go searching for gold in Dead Frenchman Mine, joined by his old friends Jessie Navarro and Matthew Dufort, and Rossi herself. As they hunt for treasure, narrowly surviving everything from cave-ins to mountain lions, they bond over shared stories of how hard life in Nowhere is—and they realize this adventure just may be their way out.

Download or read book Who Let the Gods Out 4 Against All Gods written by Maz Evans and published by Chicken House. This book was released on 2019-02-07 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fourth and final book in the hilarious bestselling WHO LET THE GODS OUT series; perfect for fans of David Solomons! 'I totally fell in love with Elliot and the gods, and I think you're all going to love them too.' ROBIN STEVENS on book 1 'One of the funniest new voices in children's literature. The laughs come thick and fast' DAVID SOLOMONS on book 1 In the series finale of Maz Evans' bestselling Who Let the Gods Out? series, Elliot faces his darkest period yet. As well as facing up to his fears, he realises that the future of mankind - and the survival of everything he holds dear - is at stake. But can a bunch of misfit gods, a lost constellation and a mortal boy stand up to the daemon hordes?

Download or read book Wee Gillis written by Munro Leaf and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2006-05-30 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Caldecott Honor Book by the creators of the beloved Story of Ferdinand Wee Gillis lives in Scotland. He is an orphan, and he spends half of each year with his mother's people in the lowlands, while the other half finds him in the highlands with his father's kin. Both sides of Gillis's family are eager for him to settle down and adopt their ways. In the lowlands, he is taught to herd cattle, learning how to call them to him in even the heaviest of evening fogs. In the rocky highlands, he stalks stags from outcrop to outcrop, holding his breath so as not to make a sound. Wee Gillis is a quick study, and he soon picks up what his elders can teach him. And yet he is unprepared when the day comes for him to decide, once and for all, whether it will be the lowlands or the highlands that he will call his home. Robert Lawson and Munro Leaf's classic picture book is a tribute to the powers of the imagination and a triumph of the storyteller's and illustrator's art.

Download or read book My Midsummer Morning Rediscovering a Life of Adventure written by Alastair Humphreys and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2019-05-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Financial Times Summer Book of 2019 Seasoned adventurer Alastair Humphreys pushes himself to his very limits – busking his way across Spain with a violin he can barely play.

Download or read book Ask an Adventurer written by Alastair Humphreys and published by Alastair Humphreys. This book was released on 2021-07-29 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Live adventurously, be creative, make a living Adventurers cross deserts and row oceans, appearing to live the dream. Yet they also must pay the bills and carve out time to get away. Are you trying to make a career doing what you love, daring to go freelance in a creative industry, growing an audience or curious about an unconventional career? What is it like to build a life from living adventurously? Whether you are adventurous, creative or just curious, Ask an Adventurer answers your questions from behind the scenes, rather than the usual questions adventurers hear: there are no kit lists, practical expedition planning advice or daring deeds in these pages. Instead, Alastair tackles questions asked by readers on social media such as: How do you make a living? How do you make time for adventure? How do you stay motivated and focused? How do you deal with post-adventure blues? How do you deal with the dilemma of flying and travel? How has social media changed the way you tell stories? How do you become an adventurer? How much does an adventurer earn? How do you decide what you will or won’t do for money? How do you find sponsors? How do you get your work done? How can we make the world of adventure better? How do you get a book published? How do you get paid to give talks? How do you become a better speaker? How do you deal with emails? How do you start a podcast? How do you launch an email newsletter? And more...

Download or read book Spiritual Activism written by Alastair McIntosh and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-24 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past half century the issues facing activists have changed, as has our understanding and awareness of spirituality. For activists, spiritual philosophy is rising up the agenda because it offers distinct, tried and tested approaches to deep questions: Where did it all go wrong? What does it mean to be human? What is the place of leadership? What is the nature of power? The book begins by defining spirituality for a modern audience of all faiths and beliefs, and goes on to consider the problems and necessities of true leadership. Drawing on a rich history of spirituality and activism, from The Bhagavad Gita, to the Hebrew prophets, to Carl Jung, it is both guide and inspiration for people involved in activism for social or environmental justice. The text is enriched with tales from the authors' own experiences. It contains case studies of inspirational spiritual activists (including Mama Efua, Desmond Tutu, Gerrard Winstanley, Sojourner Truth and Julia Butterfly Hill), which demonstrate the transformative power of spiritual principles in action.