Download or read book The Chronicles of Arax Book Three written by Ben Sanford and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2023-02-16 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "You are not alone, son of Lore, Yah reassured me, lifting my spirit. 'Twas then he revealed my brothers, brothers not of blood, but of spirit, who would stand by my side to contest Tyro's dominion. You, Terin, are one of my true brothers, sent by Yah in our time of greatest need. Your birth was foretold long ago, long before King Vantor II of the Middle Kingdom revealed the prophecy of the one to find the lost Sword of the Moon. Your birth was foretold long before the rise and fall of ancient Tarelia. Your birth was revealed to Kal himself before he fell in battle, a divine vision from Yah to his most faithful servant. You are his only descendent, his line dying or living through you and you alone. It is through you that his divine gift endures, the power to strip gargoyles of their courage and sense. Against you, they cannot stand. It is Kal's blood that enables you to call upon such power, Kal's blood that ordains you a child of prophecy. It is Kal's blood that calls out to the Swords of Light, drawing you to them, their own power symbiotic to your own. In my hand, your sword can cut through any object and would guide my hand to preserve my life. In your hand, it is so much more, enhancing your power to drive off gargoyles tenfold. The swords were forged for the descendants of Kal. They were forged for you." --Prince Lorn at the siege of Mosar While the Torries and Jenaii celebrate their victory at Corell, the battle in Yatin grows dire, forcing difficult choices on Princess Corry. As acting regent of the northern realm, she is faced with a war-torn land bracing for winter, while her brother fights a desperate battle far away. Heeding her council, she lends him the only aid she can, much to her misgivings. At Corell, Cronus must again bid his beloved Leanna farewell, undertaking a delicate mission on behalf the realm, while Elos helps Alen set his own course in the fight against his former masters. To the east, Morac's legions limp into winter quarters at Notsu, licking their wounds, while their lord plots his revenge. In the Ape Empire, General Matuzak hosts the Earthers, inviting them to aid him in establishing a republic. At Fera, Tyro obsesses over the carvings in Terin's charm, consumed with the possibilities it portends, while Tosha prepares her return to her mother's isle with child and without her consort, preparing for an uncertain reception. Before journeying to Yatin, Terin's father confides in him the great and terrible truth that plagues his past and threatens their future, a truth that shakes Terin to his very core, casting doubt over everything he knows. He must carry this terrible burden into battle, helping his future king in saving an age-old enemy of their people against the greater threat threatening to consume them all. As the war expands throughout Arax, the fate of the Torry Realms hangs in the balance, their only hope for survival dependent on the battle of Yatin.
Download or read book The Dreamt Land written by Mark Arax and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.
Download or read book The Chronicles of Arax written by Benjamin Sanford and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2022-06-28 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our actions define us as heroes or cowards, not our intentions. Such is the nature of war, Arsenc. Men march beside their comrades into walls of spears and under rains of arrows, refusing to relent so as not to shame themselves before their brothers. For every man who shirks his duty and abandons his post, a hundred stand their ground. What more can a hero be than a man who risks his life for country and friend in spite of the obvious fear that strikes at us all? The paths of war and heroes are forever intertwined.... War does not create heroes. It merely reveals them. They are not measured by the greatest of deeds but by the simple willingness to do their part. I am marching north in their company. --King Lore, before the battle of Kregmarin Having freed Cronus from the dungeons of Fera, his friends must navigate the treacherous lands of the Benotrist realm to escape Tyro's wrath. Tosha hunts Raven, desperate to bring him to her mother's realm, or suffer the shame of failure before her vassals. Leanna eagerly awaits the return of her lost love while Terin must return to his native realm after becoming separated from the others. Journeying first to the Yatin Empire and then Corell, Terin continues to unlock the full power of his father's sword, embracing the mysterious destiny guiding his path. Tyro obsesses over the images carved on Terin's lost necklace, haunted by the ghosts of his past while unleashing Morac to wage war on the Torry realm. With the fortunes of his kingdom at stake, King Lore makes a bold decision. With the conflagration spreading across Arax, will the fate of the kingdoms rise and fall by the fickle winds of chance or the guiding hand of destiny?
Download or read book The Chronicals of Arax written by Benjamin Sanford and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2022-05-26 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our actions define us as heroes or cowards, not intentions. Such is the nature of war, Arsenc. Men march beside their comrades into walls of spears and under rains of arrows, refusing to relent so as not to shame themselves before their brothers. For every man who shirks his duty and abandons his post, a hundred stand their ground. What more can a hero be than a man who risks his life for country and friend in spite of the obvious fear that strikes at us all? The paths of war and heroes are forever intertwined.... War does not create heroes. It merely reveals them. They are not measured by the greatest of deeds but by the simple willingness to do their part. I am marching north in their company. --King Lore, before the battle of Kregmarin Gargoyles had plagued mankind since the dawn of creation. Once servants of the Most High, they betrayed their creator, who cast them down upon Arax in mortal form, contesting mankind for dominion of the world. From this chaos, Yah, the creator, rose up a champion, Kal, to guide mankind in following his will and vanquishing the gargoyle curse. Kal found favor with the creator, unifying mankind into one kingdom, heralding a golden age of prosperity, justice, and equality before the law, while driving the gargoyles to the brink of extinction. Alas, all fell to ruin, his reign betrayed by the greed of treacherous lords, who slew their rightful king, establishing their own fated kingdoms, each falling in kind once the gargoyles rose again. And so mankind suffered, enduring endless war with their mortal foe for two and a half millennia, each unable to destroy the other, until one human, Tyro, arose, aligning his people with the gargoyles to war against the rest of mankind, destroying the balance that had kept the gargoyles in check since the days of King Kal. Bringing all of northern Arax under his dominion, Tyro threatened to sweep south, bringing all of Arax under his sway. With the drums of war sounding, Terin Caleph, the only son of a Torry farmer, embarks on a journey to the city of Rego to serve as a scribe and apprentice to the Torry ambassador, an old friend of his father's. To protect him on his journey, his father gifts him an ancient sword, which holds mysterious powers that he soon discovers. Are the powers inherent in the sword or in himself? Terin's journey draws him into a growing conflict between his native Torry realm and Tyro's Benotrist-Gargoyle Empire, in which he takes an ever larger and unforeseen role. Joined by a Torry warrior and a motley band of strangers from a place called Earth, he becomes caught up in the great war to decide the fate of all the sentient peoples of Arax. As in any war, there are heroes found in places one would rarely look.
Download or read book The King Of California written by Mark Arax and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2005-02-16 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: J.G. Boswell was the biggest farmer in America. He built a secret empire while thumbing his nose at nature, politicians, labor unions and every journalist who ever tried to lift the veil on the ultimate "factory in the fields." The King of California is the previously untold account of how a Georgia slave-owning family migrated to California in the early 1920s,drained one of America 's biggest lakes in an act of incredible hubris and carved out the richest cotton empire in the world. Indeed, the sophistication of Boswell 's agricultural operation -from lab to field to gin - is unrivaled anywhere. Much more than a business story, this is a sweeping social history that details the saga of cotton growers who were chased from the South by the boll weevil and brought their black farmhands to California. It is a gripping read with cameos by a cast of famous characters, from Cecil B. DeMille to Cesar Chavez.
Download or read book In My Father s Name written by Mark Arax and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1997-08 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On January 2, 1972, Mark Arax's childhood came to a sudden, explosive end when his father was shot to death at his nightclub in Fresno, California. It was one of the most sensational murders in California's heartland, and it was never solved. Mark, only fifteen years old at the time, was left with a legacy of questions: Were the rumors about his father true? Had he led a double life? Was he killed because of his dealings with the underworld? Mark Arax, an award-winning journalist at the Los Angeles Times, now writes a searing, intensely personal account of his twenty-two-year search for answers about his father's life and death, and his own identity. As the oldest child, Mark was thrust into the role of patriarch. His quest for answers began in high school, when he sought out his father's father, an Armenian immigrant. His grandfather opened a window into an old country world full of promise and heartbreak -- and four generations of eccentric family members. Two decades later, Mark uprooted his wife and baby and returned to Fresno under an assumed name to try and determine who killed his father and why. Fearing for his own life, he discovers his father was murdered just before he was going to make a startling disclosure. More than a true-life murder mystery, more than an exploration of family and culture, In My Father's Name is the poignant story of one man's remarkable journey as he uncovers long-hidden secrets about his father, his family, his heritage, and the town he once called home.
Download or read book West of the West written by Mark Arax and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011-04 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teddy Roosevelt once exclaimed, ''When I am in California, I am not in the West, I am west of the West,'' and in this book, Mark Arax sets out to explain just what TR meant. His is a compelling, sometimes ominous portrait of a place and its people who are often surviving on the edge, reliving history, and losing their way in the promised land: ''The Summer of the Death of Hilario Guzman'' is a deeply-felt portrait of an immigrant family from Oaxaca, followed through harrowing border crossings and raisin harvests; ''the Last Okie of Lamont,'' (the inspiration for the town featured in The Grapes of Wrath) has only one Okie left, who tells Arax his life story as he drives to a funeral to bury one more Dust Bowl migrant; and ''Highlands of Humboldt'' is a visit to the marijuana growing capital of the U.S., where the local bank collects a sizeable daily deposit of cash, most of which reeks of marijuana.Combining hard-hitting reporting and stellar writing, Arax captures both the atmosphere of social upheaval and the sense of being rooted in a community. Once you meet the people portrayed in this book, you won't forget them.
Download or read book California written by Kevin Starr and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2007-03-13 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A California classic . . . California, it should be remembered, was very much the wild west, having to wait until 1850 before it could force its way into statehood. so what tamed it? Mr. Starr’s answer is a combination of great men, great ideas and great projects.”—The Economist From the age of exploration to the age of Arnold, the Golden State’s premier historian distills the entire sweep of California’s history into one splendid volume. Kevin Starr covers it all: Spain’s conquest of the native peoples of California in the early sixteenth century and the chain of missions that helped that country exert control over the upper part of the territory; the discovery of gold in January 1848; the incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons; the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the role of labor, both organized and migrant, in key industries from agriculture to aerospace. In a rapid-fire epic of discovery, innovation, catastrophe, and triumph, Starr gathers together everything that is most important, most fascinating, and most revealing about our greatest state. Praise for California “[A] fast-paced and wide-ranging history . . . [Starr] accomplishes the feat with skill, grace and verve.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Kevin Starr is one of california’s greatest historians, and California is an invaluable contribution to our state’s record and lore.”—MarIa ShrIver, journalist and former First Lady of California “A breeze to read.”—San Francisco
Download or read book Alfred Kropp The Seal of Solomon written by Rick Yancey and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before The 5th Wave, there was Alfred Kropp. This second book in Rick Yancey's lauded series was called a "rip-roaring story that teens will love" in School Library Journal's starred review. Things have just settled down for Alfred, when he's suddenly kidnapped and forced to face a terrible threat--the Seal of Solomon. For millennia, the fallen angels of heaven were controlled by the ring. Now the ring has been stolen, and if it's not recovered, all hell will break loose . . . Packed with thrills and laughs on every page, the second book in New York Times bestselling author Rick Yancey's series proves once again that heroes can come from anywhere, and anyone. Perfect for fans of James Patterson! Praise for The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp: A Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of the Year Carnegie Medal nominee Book Sense Children's Pick
Download or read book Highway 99 written by Stan Yogi and published by Great Valley Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the myths of the Yokuts Indians, to stories and poems by famous contemporary writers, this anthology showcases the best literature of Californias Great Central Valley, and provides a rich view of the regions physical and emotional landscape
Download or read book Mean Justice written by Edward Humes and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-11-13 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This national bestseller from the Pulitzer Prize-winner catapults readers to the dark side of the justice system with the powerful true story of one man's battle to prove his innocence. Besieged by murder, rape, and the vilest conspiracies, the all-American town of Bakersfield, California, found its saviors in a band of bold and savvy prosecutors who stepped in to create one of the toughest anti-crime communities in the nation. There was only one problem: many of those who were arrested, tried, and imprisoned were innocent citizens. In a work as taut and exciting as a suspense novel, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Edward Humes embarks on a chilling journey to the dark side of the justice system. He reveals the powerful true story of retired high-school principal Pat Dunn's battle to prove his innocence, and how he was the victim of a case tainted by hidden witnesses, concealed evidence, and behind-the-scenes lobbying by powerful politicians. Humes demonstrates how the mean justice dispensed in Bakersfield is part of a growing national trend in which innocence has become the unintended casualty of today's war on crime.
Download or read book The End of Loyalty written by Rick Wartzman and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having a good, stable job used to be the bedrock of the American Dream. Not anymore. In this richly detailed and eye-opening book, Rick Wartzman chronicles the erosion of the relationship between American companies and their workers. Through the stories of four major employers--General Motors, General Electric, Kodak, and Coca-Cola--he shows how big businesses once took responsibility for providing their workers and retirees with an array of social benefits. At the height of the post-World War II economy, these companies also believed that worker pay needed to be kept high in order to preserve morale and keep the economy humming. Productivity boomed. But the corporate social contract didn't last. By tracing the ups and downs of these four corporate icons over seventy years, Wartzman illustrates just how much has been lost: job security and steadily rising pay, guaranteed pensions, robust health benefits, and much more. Charting the Golden Age of the '50s and '60s; the turbulent years of the '70s and '80s; and the growth of downsizing, outsourcing, and instability in the modern era, Wartzman's narrative is a biography of the American Dream gone sideways. Deeply researched and compelling, The End of Loyalty will make you rethink how Americans can begin to resurrect the middle class. Finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize in current interestA best business book of the year in economics, Strategy+Business
Download or read book The Moor s Last Stand written by Elizabeth Drayson and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2017-04-20 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1482, Abu Abdallah Muhammad XI became the twenty-third Muslim King of Granada. He would be the last. This is the first history of the ruler, known as Boabdil, whose disastrous reign and bitter defeat brought seven centuries of Moorish Spain to an end. It is an action-packed story of intrigue, treachery, cruelty, cunning, courtliness, bravery and tragedy. Basing her vivid account on original documents and sources, Elizabeth Drayson traces the origins and development of Islamic Spain. She describes the thirteenth-century founding of the Nasrid dynasty, the cultured and stable society it created, and the feuding which threatened it and had all but destroyed it by 1482, when Boabdil seized the throne. The new Sultan faced betrayals by his family, factions in the Alhambra palace, and ever more powerful onslaughts from the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella, monarchs of the newly united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. By stratagem, diplomacy, courage and strength of will Boabdil prolonged his reign for ten years, but he never had much chance of survival. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella, magnificently attired in Moorish costume, entered Granada and took possession of the city. Boabdil went into exile. The Christian reconquest of Spain, that has reverberated so powerfully down the centuries, was complete.
Download or read book The Bald Eagle The Improbable Journey of America s Bird written by Jack E. Davis and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best Books of the Month: Wall Street Journal, Kirkus Reviews From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Gulf, a sweeping cultural and natural history of the bald eagle in America. The bald eagle is regal but fearless, a bird you’re not inclined to argue with. For centuries, Americans have celebrated it as “majestic” and “noble,” yet savaged the living bird behind their national symbol as a malicious predator of livestock and, falsely, a snatcher of babies. Taking us from before the nation’s founding through inconceivable resurgences of this enduring all-American species, Jack E. Davis contrasts the age when native peoples lived beside it peacefully with that when others, whether through hunting bounties or DDT pesticides, twice pushed Haliaeetus leucocephalus to the brink of extinction. Filled with spectacular stories of Founding Fathers, rapacious hunters, heroic bird rescuers, and the lives of bald eagles themselves—monogamous creatures, considered among the animal world’s finest parents—The Bald Eagle is a much-awaited cultural and natural history that demonstrates how this bird’s wondrous journey may provide inspiration today, as we grapple with environmental peril on a larger scale.
Download or read book California Burning written by Katherine Blunt and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revelatory, urgent narrative with national implications, exploring the decline of California’s largest utility company that led to countless wildfires — including the one that destroyed the town of Paradise – and the human cost of infrastructure failure Pacific Gas and Electric was a legacy company built by innovators and visionaries, establishing California as a desirable home and economic powerhouse. In California Burning, Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer finalist Katherine Blunt examines how that legacy fell apart—unraveling a long history of deadly failures in which Pacific Gas and Electric endangered millions of Northern Californians, through criminal neglect of its infrastructure. As PG&E prioritized profits and politics, power lines went unchecked—until a rusted hook purchased for 56 cents in 1921 split in two, sparking the deadliest wildfire in California history. Beginning with PG&E’s public reckoning after the Paradise fire, Blunt chronicles the evolution of PG&E’s shareholder base, from innovators who built some of California's first long-distance power lines to aggressive investors keen on reaping dividends. Following key players through pivotal decisions and legal battles, California Burning reveals the forces that shaped the plight of PG&E: deregulation and market-gaming led by Enron Corp., an unyielding push for renewable energy, and a swift increase in wildfire risk throughout the West, while regulators and lawmakers pushed their own agendas. California Burning is a deeply reported, character-driven narrative, the story of a disaster expanding into a much bigger exploration of accountability. It’s an American tragedy that serves as a cautionary tale for utilities across the nation—especially as climate change makes aging infrastructure more vulnerable, with potentially fatal consequences.
Download or read book Miracle Country written by Kendra Atleework and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE SIGURD F. OLSON NATURE WRITING AWARD “Blending family memoir and environmental history, Kendra Atleework conveys a fundamental truth: the places in which we live, live on—sometimes painfully—in us. This is a powerful, beautiful, and urgently important book.” —Julie Schumacher, author of Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirement Kendra Atleework grew up in Swall Meadows, in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where annual rainfall averages five inches and in drought years measures closer to zero. Her parents taught their children to thrive in this beautiful if harsh landscape prone to wildfires, blizzards, and gale-force winds. Above all, the Atleework children were raised on unconditional love and delight in the natural world. But when Kendra’s mother died when Kendra was just sixteen, her once-beloved desert world came to feel empty and hostile, as climate change, drought, and wildfires intensified. The Atleework family fell apart, even as her father tried to keep them together. Kendra escaped to Los Angeles, and then Minneapolis, land of tall trees, full lakes, water everywhere you look. But after years of avoiding her troubled hometown, she felt pulled back. Miracle Country is a moving and unforgettable memoir of flight and return, emptiness and bounty, the realities of a harsh and changing climate, and the true meaning of home. For readers of Cheryl Strayed, Terry Tempest Williams, and Rebecca Solnit, this is a breathtaking debut by a remarkable writer.
Download or read book River of Renewal written by Stephen Most and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Most tells these stories in the voices of the protagonists, who give the basin's complex history an illuminating immediacy that infuses the entire book. It is a mark of his achievement that he has been able to make these historical, cultural, and environmental pieces into a comprehensive whole.River of Renewalis the best source available for those wishing to think clearly about this cumulative tragedy, as well as a first-rate model for regional land use anywhere in the American West." -Orion Magazine A land of mountains, forests, wetlands, lakes, and rivers, the Klamath Basin spans the Oregon-California state line. Farms and ranches, logging towns, and back-to-the-land communities are scattered over this 10-million-acre bioregion. There are Indian reservations at the headwaters, at the estuary, and across the major tributary of the Klamath River. In this place that has witnessed, ever since the Gold Rush, a succession of wars and resource conflicts, myths of the West loom large, amplifying differences among its inhabitants. At the core of the contemporary controversy is overallocation of the waters of the Klamath Basin. This dispute has pitted farmers and ranchers against those whose cultures and livelihoods depend upon fishing and others who would forestall the extinction of wild salmon. Yet it has also revealed the unity of the Klamath Basin, the interdependence of economic recovery with ecological restoration, and the urgency for all the communities within the Basin to find common ground. Stephen Mostis a playwright and documentary storyteller. He has contributed to numerous documentary films, including Emmy Award winnersWonders of Nature and Promisesand the Academy Award-nominatedBerkeley in the Sixties. His playsMedicine Show, Watershed, andA Free Countrydramatize events in Pacific Northwest history. To listen to an interview with Stephen Most entitled "Fished Out: Draining the Seas of Their Bounty," please visit: http://www.aworldofpossibilities.com/
