EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book Journey to the Sun

    Book Details:
  • Author : Gregory Orfalea
  • Publisher : Simon and Schuster
  • Release : 2014-01-14
  • ISBN : 145164275X
  • Pages : 480 pages

Download or read book Journey to the Sun written by Gregory Orfalea and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating narrative of the remarkable life of Junípero Serra, the intrepid priest who led Spain and the Catholic Church into California in the 1700s and became a key figure in the making of the American West. The fascinating narrative of the remarkable life of Junípero Serra, the intrepid priest who led Spain and the Catholic Church into California in the 1700s and became a key figure in the making of the American West In the year 1749, at the age of thirty-six, Junípero Serra left his position as a highly regarded priest in Spain for the turbulent and dangerous New World, knowing he would never return. The Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church both sought expansion in Mexico—the former in search of gold, the latter seeking souls—as well as entry into the mysterious land to the north called “California.” Serra’s mission: to spread Christianity in this unknown world by building churches wherever possible and by converting the native peoples to the Word of God. It was an undertaking that seemed impossible, given the vast distances, the challenges of the unforgiving landscape, and the danger posed by resistant native tribes. Such a journey would require bottomless physical stamina, indomitable psychic strength, and, above all, the deepest faith. Serra, a diminutive man with a stout heart, possessed all of these attributes, as well as an innate humility that allowed him to see the humanity in native people whom the West viewed as savages. By his death at age seventy-one, Serra had traveled more than 14,000 miles on land and sea through the New World—much of that distance on a chronically infected and painful foot—baptized and confirmed 6,000 Indians, and founded nine of California’s twenty-one missions, with his followers establishing the rest. The names of these missions ring through the history of California— San Diego, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Clara, and San Francisco—and served as the epicenters of the arrival of Western civilization, where millions more would follow, creating the California we know today. An impoverished son, an inspired priest, and a potent political force, Serra was a complex man who stood at the historic crossroads between Native Americans, the often brutal Spanish soldiers, and the dictates of the Catholic Church, which still practiced punishment by flogging. In this uncertain, violent atmosphere, Serra sought to protect the indigenous peoples from abuse and to bring them the rituals and spiritual comfort of the Church even as the microbes carried by Europeans threatened their existence. Beginning with Serra’s boyhood on the isolated island of Mallorca, venturing into the final days of the Spanish Inquisition, revealing the thriving grandeur of Mexico City, and finally journeying up the untouched California coast, Gregory Orfalea’s magisterial biography is a rich epic that cuts new ground in our understanding of the origins of the United States. Combining biography, European history, knowledge of Catholic doctrine, and anthropology, Journey to the Sun brings original research and perspective to America’s creation story. Orfalea’s poetic and incisive recounting of Serra’s life shows how one man changed the future of California and in so doing affected the future of our nation.

Book The Sun Is a Compass

Download or read book The Sun Is a Compass written by Caroline Van Hemert and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of Cheryl Strayed, the gripping story of a biologist's human-powered journey from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic to rediscover her love of birds, nature, and adventure. During graduate school, as she conducted experiments on the peculiarly misshapen beaks of chickadees, ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert began to feel stifled in the isolated, sterile environment of the lab. Worried that she was losing her passion for the scientific research she once loved, she was compelled to experience wildness again, to be guided by the sounds of birds and to follow the trails of animals. In March of 2012, she and her husband set off on a 4,000-mile wilderness journey from the Pacific rainforest to the Alaskan Arctic, traveling by rowboat, ski, foot, raft, and canoe. Together, they survived harrowing dangers while also experiencing incredible moments of joy and grace -- migrating birds silhouetted against the moon, the steamy breath of caribou, and the bond that comes from sharing such experiences. A unique blend of science, adventure, and personal narrative, The Sun is a Compass explores the bounds of the physical body and the tenuousness of life in the company of the creatures who make their homes in the wildest places left in North America. Inspiring and beautifully written, this love letter to nature is a lyrical testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Winner of the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Competition: Adventure Travel

Book Journey to the Sun

Download or read book Journey to the Sun written by Brent Cunningham and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetry. The subtitle to JOURNEY TO THE SUN offers this summary: "Wherein the Author recounts his travels, at the tender age of Thirteen, to the Source of All Life, accompanyied by his father's employer, Mister George Westinghouse, and not neglecting the Author's youthful opinions on the matters of Publick Education, Poetry, and Messianic Time." Frequently borrowing from the texts of long-dead authors, including Cyrano de Bergerac, Robert Burton, William Blake, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and a host of other non-contemporaries, the result is an epic poem deeply at odds with the dominant styles and concerns of its time, which itself may prove timely. "Brent Cunningham has written one of those rare, almost paradoxical books that balance the quietly luminous with the absolutely batshit. JOURNEY TO THE SUN reads like a collaboration between Judge Schreber and late Wallace Stevens part Supreme Fiction, part Nervous Illness. I think of this book as an exploration of the wondrous folly and obstinate perseverance which it takes to write poetry in these parlous times, let alone a poetry that sets its sights beyond the dazzling horrors of our self-destructing planet." Jasper Bernes "In his awesome second book, Brent Cunningham rhetoricizes and exclaims his way to an answer of sorts by sending the Author, a 13-year-old Everypoet, to the Source of Everything and back. Part true autobiography, part inverted Inferno, part manifesto for these End Times, JOURNEY TO THE SUN spares nothing in its manically slant indictment of the mobile class, trivia, globalization, America, ego, environmental destruction, and the state of poetry." Anna Moschovakis"

Book Journey from the Center of the Sun

Download or read book Journey from the Center of the Sun written by Jack B. Zirker and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jack Zirker takes us on an imaginary voyage from the center of the sun to its surface, showing us how sunlight is made and finally following the sun's energy to the far reaches of the solar system. Along the way, he introduces the basic processes at work in our nearest star and the exciting answers solar scientists are finding to problems that have long perplexed astronomers. Journey from the Center of the Sun describes how theory and practice are coming together to provide a new understanding of this old star. At this moment, solar physicists are collecting the best observations ever obtained about the sun's interior and dynamic atmosphere, while a new breed of theorists is interpreting these data using computer simulations. Zirker reports on cutting-edge advances and looks at the tough questions solar physicists are beginning to crack. How can we account for the solar wind that causes the sun to lose mass at an astonishing rate? Where have all the neutrinos gone? How does the sun generate magnetic sunspots, and why does it have a sunspot cycle? What causes a solar flare to explode? How does the sun affect the earth's climate? What is a sunquake? For the armchair astronomer or the student of astrophysics, this book provides an unusually complete picture of solar physics today.

Book To the Sun

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jodie Shepherd
  • Publisher : Lerner + ORM
  • Release : 2017-01-01
  • ISBN : 1512439010
  • Pages : 27 pages

Download or read book To the Sun written by Jodie Shepherd and published by Lerner + ORM. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sun brings light, heat, and energy to Earth! Leela's imagination takes her on a journey to explore the sun. Come aboard her spacecraft as she orbits around the sun and learns what makes it so hot! Find out more about the closest star to our planet.

Book Journey Around the Sun

Download or read book Journey Around the Sun written by James Gladstone and published by Owlkids. This book was released on 2021-03-15 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Halley's Comet tells its own history in this unique STEM book Halley's Comet, visible from Earth only once every 75 years, tells its own story in this unique informational picture book. With each return of the comet, the book highlights human life at that time, and how science has advanced toward a greater understanding of our universe. Told in minimal, poetic text paired with detailed captions for context, the book begins with sightings in ancient civilizations, where for centuries, the comet was a mystery recorded in art and writing. From Edmond Halley's successful prediction of the comet's return in 1758, through the advent of technologies like cameras and eventually a spacecraft that photographed its ice core, Halley's Comet tells an inspiring and wide-reaching story of scientific advancement and cultural history. The book closes by inviting readers to wonder what our world might look like the next time Halley's Comet is visible from earth, expected in 2061. What will the comet "see," next time it passes by on its journey?

Book Here Comes the Sun

Download or read book Here Comes the Sun written by Joshua M. Greene and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2010-12-09 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A fascinating read." –Associated Press Joshua Greene, who studied meditation with the legendary Beatle George Harrison, draws on personal remembrances, recorded conversations, and firsthand accounts to create a moving portrait of Harrison's spiritual life, his profound contribution to the Beatles' music, and previously unpublished anecdotes about his time with music legends Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, and others. "Many well-known artists have touched people's hearts with their music, but few have ever succeeded in touching people's souls. That was George's gift, and his story is described here with affection and taste. A wonderful book." –Mia Farrow

Book Journey of the Midnight Sun

Download or read book Journey of the Midnight Sun written by Shazia Afzal and published by Orca Book Publishers. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the true story of the journey of the Midnight Sun Mosque. In 2010 a Winnipeg-based charity raised funds to build and ship a mosque to Inuvik, one of the most northern towns in Canada’s Arctic. A small but growing Muslim community there had been using a cramped trailer for their services, but there just wasn't enough space. The mosque travelled over 4,000 kilometers on a journey fraught with poor weather, incomplete bridges, narrow roads, low traffic wires and a deadline to get on the last barge heading up the Mackenzie River before the first winter freeze. But it made it just in time and is now one of the most northern mosques in the world. This beautiful picture book reminds us that the collective dream of fostering a multicultural and tolerant Canada exists and that people of all backgrounds will come together to build bridges and overcome obstacles for the greater good of their neighbors.

Book 15 Million Degrees

    Book Details:
  • Author : Lucie Green
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2016-05
  • ISBN : 9780670922192
  • Pages : 296 pages

Download or read book 15 Million Degrees written by Lucie Green and published by . This book was released on 2016-05 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Don t Play in the Sun

Download or read book Don t Play in the Sun written by Marita Golden and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Don’t play in the sun. You’re going to have to get a light-skinned husband for the sake of your children as it is.” In these words from her mother, novelist and memoirist Marita Golden learned as a girl that she was the wrong color. Her mother had absorbed “colorism” without thinking about it. But, as Golden shows in this provocative book, biases based on skin color persist–and so do their long-lasting repercussions. Golden recalls deciding against a distinguished black university because she didn’t want to worry about whether she was light enough to be homecoming queen. A male friend bitterly remembers that he was teased about his girlfriend because she was too dark for him. Even now, when she attends a party full of accomplished black men and their wives, Golden wonders why those wives are all nearly white. From Halle Berry to Michael Jackson, from Nigeria to Cuba, from what she sees in the mirror to what she notices about the Grammys, Golden exposes the many facets of "colorism" and their effect on American culture. Part memoir, part cultural history, and part analysis, Don't Play in the Sun also dramatizes one accomplished black woman's inner journey from self-loathing to self-acceptance and pride.

Book Under the Midnight Sun

    Book Details:
  • Author : Keigo Higashino
  • Publisher : Minotaur Books
  • Release : 2016-11-08
  • ISBN : 1250105803
  • Pages : 561 pages

Download or read book Under the Midnight Sun written by Keigo Higashino and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2016-11-08 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed international bestseller Keigo Higashino (The Devotion of Suspect X) comes a sweeping novel in the tradition of Les Miserables and Crime and Punishment. This is the compelling story of a brutal crime and the two teenagers—Ryo, the son of the murdered man, and Yukiho, the daughter of the main suspect—whose lives remain inextricably linked over the twenty-year search for the truth behind the crime. In Osaka in 1973, the body of a murdered man is found in an abandoned building. Investigating the crime, Detective SasagakI is unable to find the killer. Over the next twenty years, through the lens of a succession of characters, Higashino tells the story of two teens, Ryo and Yukiho, whose lives are most affected by the crime, and the obsessed detective, Sasagaki, who continues to investigate the murder, looking for the elusive truth. Under the Midnight Sun is a complex, psychological novel about crime and its after-effects by one the most read and most accomplished contemporary mystery author. A twisting, compelling work that will astonish and delight Higashino’s old fans and new readers alike.

Book Journey to the West

Download or read book Journey to the West written by Wu Cheng'en and published by Asiapac Books Pte Ltd. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling Journey to the West comic book by artist Chang Boon Kiat is now back in a brand new fully coloured edition. Journey to the West is one of the greatest classics in Chinese literature. It tells the epic tale of the monk Xuanzang who journeys to the West in search of the Buddhist sutras with his disciples, Sun Wukong, Sandy and Pigsy. Along the way, Xuanzang's life was threatened by the diabolical White Bone Spirit, the menacing Red Child and his fearsome parents and, a host of evil spirits who sought to devour Xuanzang's flesh to attain immortality. Bear witness to the formidable Sun Wukong's (Monkey God) prowess as he takes them on, using his Fiery Eyes, Golden Cudgel, Somersault Cloud, and quick wits! Be prepared for a galloping read that will leave you breathless!

Book Journey to the Sun

Download or read book Journey to the Sun written by Max Koehler and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2014-12-15 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sun is one of 300 billion stars in our galaxy, but to those of us on Earth, it is the most special star of them all. The Sun is what makes all life on Earth possible because it provides heat and energy for life to thrive. This book will let readers explore the Sun inside and out as they learn about everything from sunspots and solar flares to what the Sun is made of. Complemented by full color photographs and illustrations, the book’s accessible text makes complex topics easy to follow.

Book Journey to the Sun

Download or read book Journey to the Sun written by Gregory Orfalea and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The narrative of the remarkable life of Junipero Serra, the intrepid priest who led Spain and the Catholic Church into California in the 1700s and became a key figure in the making of the American West. In the year 1749, at the age of thirty-six, Junipero Serra left his position as a highly regarded priest in Spain for the turbulent and dangerous New World, knowing he would never return. The Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church both sought expansion in Mexico--the former in search of gold, the latter seeking souls--as well as entry into the mysterious land to the north called "California." By his death at age seventy-one, Serra had traveled more than 14,000 miles on land and sea through the New World--much of that distance on a chronically infected and painful foot--baptized and confirmed 6,000 Indians, and founded nine of California's twenty-one missions, with his followers establishing the rest.

Book Voyage of the Southern Sun

Download or read book Voyage of the Southern Sun written by Michael Smith and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2015, Michael Smith set out on a remarkable mission and became the first person to fly solo around the world in an amphibious plane. This is the often funny, occasionally terrifying and always inspiring story of that trip, and how it came about. With limited flying experience, no support team and only basic instruments in his tiny flying boat, the Southern Sun, Michael risked his life to make modern aviation history. His adventures include an unexpected greeting by Special Branch on his arrival in the UK, a near-death experience while leaving Greenland, and a wondrous journey up the Mississippi. Showing a very Australian ingenuity and openness to experience, Michael worked his way around the globe. In seven months he made eighty stops in twenty-five countries, visiting many unusual places and, more often than not, encountering the kindness of strangers. ‘Great Aussie spirit in a good old-fashioned, seat-of-the-pants adventure’ —Dick Smith ‘The blue-sky dreaming of Walter Mitty, the resourcefulness of Phileas Fogg and – dare I say it? – the over-confidence and geniality of Mr Toad in a flying machine. Surely these literary figures were the inspiration for such an adventure. A marvellous exploit and wonderfully told.’ —A.J. Mackinnon, author The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow Michael Smith was named Australian Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year in 2016. He is also one of Australia’s last independent metropolitan cinema operators, after he restored and re-opened the beloved Sun Theatre in Yarraville, Melbourne.

Book Sun Journey

Download or read book Sun Journey written by Ann Nolan Clark and published by . This book was released on 1945 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young Zuni boy learns from his grandfather the customs and ways of his people.

Book Chasing the Rising Sun

    Book Details:
  • Author : Ted Anthony
  • Publisher : Simon and Schuster
  • Release : 2007-07-13
  • ISBN : 9781416539308
  • Pages : 336 pages

Download or read book Chasing the Rising Sun written by Ted Anthony and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-07-13 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chasing the Rising Sun is the story of an American musical journey told by a prize-winning writer who traced one song in its many incarnations as it was carried across the world by some of the most famous singers of the twentieth century. Most people know the song "House of the Rising Sun" as 1960s rock by the British Invasion group the Animals, a ballad about a place in New Orleans -- a whorehouse or a prison or gambling joint that's been the ruin of many poor girls or boys. Bob Dylan did a version and Frijid Pink cut a hard-rocking rendition. But that barely scratches the surface; few songs have traveled a journey as intricate as "House of the Rising Sun." The rise of the song in this country and the launch of its world travels can be traced to Georgia Turner, a poor, sixteen-year-old daughter of a miner living in Middlesboro, Kentucky, in 1937 when the young folk-music collector Alan Lomax, on a trip collecting field recordings, captured her voice singing "The Rising Sun Blues." Lomax deposited the song in the Library of Congress and included it in the 1941 book Our Singing Country. In short order, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, and Josh White learned the song and each recorded it. From there it began to move to the planet's farthest corners. Today, hundreds of artists have recorded "House of the Rising Sun," and it can be heard in the most diverse of places -- Chinese karaoke bars, Gatorade ads, and as a ring tone on cell phones. Anthony began his search in New Orleans, where he met Eric Burdon of the Animals. He traveled to the Appalachians -- to eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina -- to scour the mountains for the song's beginnings. He found Homer Callahan, who learned it in the mountains during a corn shucking; he discovered connections to Clarence "Tom" Ashley, who traveled as a performer in a 1920s medicine show. He went to Daisy, Kentucky, to visit the family of the late high-lonesome singer Roscoe Holcomb, and finally back to Bourbon Street to see if there really was a House of the Rising Sun. He interviewed scores of singers who performed the song. Through his own journey he discovered how American traditions survived and prospered -- and how a piece of culture moves through the modern world, propelled by technology and globalization and recorded sound.