Download or read book Failure is an Option written by Matt Whyman and published by Vertebrate Publishing. This book was released on 2022-04-14 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'We're not at parkrun any more,' I mutter to myself, quietly longing for the presence of nice marshals in high-visibility vests. Failure is an Option is the story of an average runner who sets out to discover just how far he can go. With the support (and misgivings) of his family, and aware that his quickest years are behind him, Matt Whyman leaves the Saturday morning 5K to push towards 100-mile ultramarathons and beyond. By slowing things down to run a very long way, he joins a growing number of men and women from all walks of life striving to do something extraordinary. A newcomer to a world that can often seem off-limits, Matt finds his feet as an ultrarunner by learning the hard way. He battles monster hallucinations on endurance races spanning day and night, loses himself on tantalising trails across landscapes far from home, and forges bonds with fellow competitors in which small, kind gestures mean more than any medal. Determined to touch the boundaries of his running world before it starts to shrink, ultimately Matt sets his sights on a six-day mountain ultra that even hardened veterans consider to be the most formidable on earth: the Dragon's Back Race. Brimming with good humour, honesty and joy, Failure is an Option pits ambition against ability to uncover human truths that resonate with us all. A mid-pack competitor who could win prizes for enthusiasm – if nothing else – Matt takes us on a journey far beyond his comfort zone and with no guaranteed outcome of success. The results are entertaining from start to finish, often very funny and at times deeply moving.
Download or read book The Dragon s Back written by Thea Whittington and published by . This book was released on 2010-11-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While hiking the hills of Hong Kong with his parents, Siu Ming and his parents come across a forest fire that threatens them, the green valley, and the mountain dragon that protects it.
Download or read book In the Shadow of the Dragon s Back written by Rachel Odhner Longstaff and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-08-02 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is the story of a young American girl living in South Africa during the early years of Apartheid (1948-1960). One of six children of a Swedenborgian minister who was sent to South Africa to establish a theological school for Africans, the author reaches back into this unique time and place in an effort to rediscover the culture that influenced her own adult attitudes. Rather than following a strictly chronological format, the story is laid out in a series of verbal snapshots, supported by photographs. Family life, experienced through the eyes of a child living in a complex environment, contrasts with the lives of those who were impacted by the institutionalized racism of apartheid. Examples of the Acts of Apartheid at the end of each chapter include news articles, interviews, and commentary. Deep childhood fears of some unnamed threat are represented by home invasions, wildfires, and the cry of a hyena in the mountains. The mountains are dangerous, they present a great barrier, but they can be conquered. After returning permanently to America as a teenager¿through a confusing and sometimes painful process of discussion and observation¿the author uncovers those artifacts of the past that inform her place in the world today.
Download or read book Aerial Geology written by Mary Caperton Morton and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2017-10-04 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Get your head into the clouds with Aerial Geology.” —The New York Times Book Review Aerial Geology is an up-in-the-sky exploration of North America’s 100 most spectacular geological formations. Crisscrossing the continent from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to the Great Salt Lake in Utah and to the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico, Mary Caperton Morton brings you on a fantastic tour, sharing aerial and satellite photography, explanations on how each site was formed, and details on what makes each landform noteworthy. Maps and diagrams help illustrate the geological processes and clarify scientific concepts. Fact-filled, curious, and way more fun than the geology you remember from grade school, Aerial Geology is a must-have for the insatiably curious, armchair geologists, million-mile travelers, and anyone who has stared out the window of a plane and wondered what was below.
Download or read book Riding the Dragon s Back written by Richard Bangs and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-11-25 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exciting account of adventure and competition follows several expeditions to be the first to descend China's longest river, from its headwaters in Tibet to the Three Gorges region, and eventually to the East China Sea. Among the players are a megalomaniac American fishing guide, patriotic members of China's youth movement, novice boaters full of fear and experienced rafters filled with hubris, thrown together to challenge one of the world's most dangerous rivers. Originally published in 1989, and winner of a Lowell Thomas Award that year for best travel book, "Riding the Dragon's Back" has been slightly revised to emphasize the drama and excitement of its narrative of competition and challenge, although the chapters on Chinese exploration and history remain. This is modern river exploration at its best, and the book has inspired numerous whitewater enthusiasts over the years to emulate its adventurous spirit.
Download or read book Dragons in a Bag written by Zetta Elliott and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dragon's out of the bag in this diverse, young urban fantasy from an award-winning author! When Jaxon is sent to spend the day with a mean old lady his mother calls Ma, he finds out she's not his grandmother--but she is a witch! She needs his help delivering baby dragons to a magical world where they'll be safe. There are two rules when it comes to the dragons: don't let them out of the bag, and don't feed them anything sweet. Before he knows it, Jax and his friends Vikram and Kavita have broken both rules! Will Jax get the baby dragons delivered safe and sound? Or will they be lost in Brooklyn forever? AN ALA-ALSC NOTABLE CHILDREN'S BOOK AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR The Dragons in a Bag series continues! Don't miss The Dragon Thief, and coming in Spring 2022, The Witch's Apprentice.
Download or read book The Dragons Return written by J. J. Thompson and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over 3 years ago, the old Earth began to die. Technology started to break down. Electricity failed. Machines stopped working. Planes, trains and cars became useless hunks of metal. And then the dragons came. On the Night of Burning, the world's great cities were reduced to slag and rubble by dragon fire. Civilization, as we knew it. ceased to be. But before the end came, there were the Changlings. A few humans, children and adults alike, began to mutate into...something else. Ears became pointed, fingers fused or elongated. Their old languages were lost to them and they began to babble in unknown tongues. Perhaps one in a hundred thousand Changed. Simon O'Toole was one of them. Back then, he was a large middle-aged man. Now he's a skinny, awkward teenager, Simon has lost everything; his family, his friends, the world that he knew. But he has gained something as well. Through hints in dreams, he has learned magical runes that can summon elementals. He can cast fireballs and lightning. In short, Simon has become a wizard. Slowly, carefully, he is learning to use this new power. It will take years to master his magic. Years that Simon may not have. The dragons are still on the hunt. They search for survivors of the human race, and when they have been exterminated, the dragons will turn on the last remnants of humanity: the Changlings themselves.
Download or read book The Dragon Thief written by Zetta Elliott and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stealing a baby dragon was easy! Hiding it is a little more complicated, in this second book in the critically acclaimed Dragons in a Bag series. Jaxon had just one job--to return three baby dragons to the realm of magic. But when he got there, only two dragons were left in the bag. His best friend's sister, Kavita, is a dragon thief! Kavita only wanted what was best for the baby dragon. But now every time she feeds it, the dragon grows and grows! How can she possibly keep it secret? Even worse, stealing it has upset the balance between the worlds. The gates to the other realm have shut tight! Jaxon needs all the help he can get to find Kavita, outsmart a trickster named Blue, and return the baby dragon to its true home. Don't miss Book 1: Dragons in a Bag: AN ALA-ALSC NOTABLE CHILDREN'S BOOK AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR The Dragons in a Bag series continues! Coming in Spring 2022, don't miss The Witch's Apprentice.
Download or read book The Book of Dragons written by Jonathan Strahan and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: R.F. Kuang, Kate Elliott, Ken Liu, Todd McCaffrey, Garth Nix, Peter S. Beagle, and other modern masters of fantasy and science fiction put their unique spin on the greatest of mythical beasts—the dragon—in never-before-seen works written exclusively for this fantasy anthology compiled by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan and with art by Rovina Cai! Here there be dragons . . . From China to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons have long captured our imagination in myth and legend. Whether they are rampaging beasts awaiting a brave hero to slay or benevolent sages who have much to teach humanity, dragons are intrinsically connected to stories of creation, adventure, and struggle beloved for generations. Bringing together nearly thirty stories and poems from some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers working today— Garth Nix, Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie & Rachel Swirsky, Daniel Abraham, Peter S. Beagle, Beth Cato, Zen Cho, C. S. E Cooney, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Kate Elliott, Theodora Goss, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Seanan Maguire, Patricia A McKillip, K. J. Parker, Kelly Robson, Michael Swanwick, Jo Walton, Elle Katharine White, Jane Yolen, Kelly Barnhill, Brooke Bolander, Sarah Gailey, and J. Y. Yang—and illustrated by award-nominated artist Rovina Cai with black-and-white line drawings specific to each entry throughout, this extraordinary collection vividly breathes fire and life into one of our most captivating and feared magical creatures as never before and is sure to become a treasured keepsake for fans of fantasy, science fiction, and fairy tales.
Download or read book Flight of the Dragon Kyn written by Susan Fletcher and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a story about Kara and dragons. When she was four, she came down with vermillion fever. Her parents, thinking there was no cure, left her in a cave to die. A month, later she walked back into her parents’ home as healthy as if she had never been sick. It is said that a mother dragon lived in that cave, and she nursed young Kara back to life. Now, eleven years later, the only reminder of Kara’s illness is a small scar on her cheek. Of her contact with the dragon, there is more. Her eyes, which once were blue, are now green. And she can call down birds, which many believe is a sign that she can also call down dragons, for the two are distant cousins. Only Kara has her doubts. How can a beast as huge and terrifying as a dragon be related to a sweet, gentle bird? But could this explain why the king has sent for her? Does he think she has power over dragons? For Kara, the answer to this question means life or death—not only for her, but for all the dragons.
Download or read book Dragon s Bait written by Vivian Vande Velde and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2003-04-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this fantasy adventure, a teenage girl accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death by dragon finds an unexpected friend—and maybe something more. Fifteen-year-old Alys is not a witch. But that doesn’t matter—the villagers think she is and have staked her out on a hillside as a sacrifice to the local dragon. It’s late, it’s cold, and it’s raining, and Alys can think of only one thing—revenge. But first she’s got to escape, and even if she does, how can one girl possibly take on an entire town alone? Then the dragon arrives—a dragon that could quite possibly be the perfect ally…. An ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age “Wicked wit and charm . . . as well as a gutsy heroine and a sexy dragon.” —Booklist “Alys herself is a worthy heroine, with a capricious gift for irony. A thoughtful mainstream fantasy.” —Publishers Weekly “[A] dark, bittersweet romance.” —Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book Dragons in Diamond Village And Other Tales from the Back Alleys of Urbanising China written by David Bandurski and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2009, on the outskirts of the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, Xian villagers secretly prepared for the Dragon Boat Festival. For them, the commemoration of the 221 BC poet Qu Yuan, who threw himself into a river to protest official corruption, held particular resonance. Guangzhou's drive to become a 'National Model City' ahead of the 2010 Asia Games accelerated a voracious demand for land, turning the ground beneath the villagers' feet into a commodity as valuable as diamonds, a treasure too rich for local officials to ignore. Dragons in Diamond Village is about the courage of individuals: Huang Minpeng, a semi-literate farmer turned self-taught rights defender; He Jieling, a suburban housewife who just wanted to open a hair salon; Xian villagers like Lu Zhaohui who refuse to give up the land their families have cultivated for generations. Theirs is a community bound by shared history and a belief in the necessity of change, a band of unlikely activists fighting for their place in China's new cities. 'A beautifully written account of how China's traditional rural past is meeting – and struggling with – its urbanising present . . . Via deftly told tales of China's little-known urban villages, Bandurski expertly guides readers through a mostly overlooked landscape and modern history.' Adam Minter, author of Junkyard Planet 'David Bandurski is a modern-day Marco Polo taking us into the heart of new China.' Kevin Sites, author of Swimming with Warlords and In the Hot Zone 'Vivid depictions of how villagers and migrants, living through the lawless and violent storms of Chinese urban land development, turn into political resistors. An important book of social reportage in the traditions of Liu Binyan and Studs Terkel.' Susan Shirk, author of China: Fragile Superpower and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State during the Clinton administration 'Bandurski combines his deep knowledge of China's history and culture with graceful writing to produce a thoroughly enjoyable book, and an important one for understanding the tension at the heart of China's breakneck pace of change.' Keith B. Richburg, author of Out Of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa and former China correspondent for the Washington Post
Download or read book Chasing the Dragon written by Jackie Pullinger and published by Hodder & Stoughton. This book was released on 2012-01-19 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until it was pulled down, the Walled City was Hong Kong's most foreboding territory. It was a lawless place, dominated by the Triads, and which the police hesitated to enter. Strangers were unwelcome. Drug smuggling and heroin addiction flourished, as did prostitution and pornography, extortion and fear. When Jackie Pullinger set sail from England in 1966 she had no idea that God was calling her to the Walled City. Yet, as she spoke of Jesus Christ, brutal Triad gangsters were converted, prostitutes quit, and Jackie discovered a new treatment for drug addiction: baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Download or read book Summer of the Dragons written by Ed Clarke and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2020-04-16 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'That's not a bird,' Mari said, disbelievingly. 'That's another dragon . . .' A year after she discovered a tiny dragon on the beach, life is getting back to normal for Mari Jones and Gweeb, when two unexpected events turn it upside down again. First comes the news that Mari's mum Rhian is expecting a baby, meaning that her boyfriend Gareth and Mari's best friend Dylan will be moving in with them on the farm. Even more incredibly, Gweeb's family have returned to lay their eggs in the same cave where Mari first found her secret dragon. With tourists flocking to the beach for the summer, Mari has her work cut out to keep the dragons hidden and safe, especially when disgraced scientist Dr Griff Griffiths turns up on the hunt for a story. And when Griff manages to find and steal Gweeb's precious egg, Mari must stage a daring rescue mission before it's too late . . .
Download or read book Attack of the Underwear Dragon written by Scott Rothman and published by Dragonfly Books. This book was released on 2022-08-16 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brave knights, fire-breathing dragons, and underwear – in this comical paperback picture book, one young knight takes on a mighty dragon to save the kingdom. With playful illustrations from the #1 New York Times bestselling artist of The Bad Seed! Cole's wish comes true when he becomes an Assistant Knight to Sir Percival, his favorite Knight of King Arthur's Round Table. Cole learns how to ride a horse, swing a sword, cheer for Sir Percival when he goes to battle, and bandage his boo-boos when the battle is over. Cole loves practicing every skill a Knight-in-Training must master and he is determined to be granted knighthood. Sir Percival is a great knight in every way, except for one thing: He is terrified that an Underwear Dragon will come and destroy the kingdom. But when the unthinkable happens, Cole is the only knight left standing (and just an assistant knight at that!) Cole must use all of his newly acquired skills to battle the fearsome dragon and avoid a catastrophe. Luckily, an unfortunate underwear mishap changes everything and Cole triumphs in this hilarious and triumphant tale! Kids of all ages will recognize themselves in our pint-sized hero. Don't miss the fun and silly sequel, Return of the Underwear Dragon!
Download or read book How to Train Your Dragon Meet the Dragons written by Catherine Hapka and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-02-09 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young Viking is presented with the task of capturing and training a dragon in order to pass his clan's initiation test.
Download or read book Book of Drakes written by Mike Welham and published by . This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Small and Mighty (and sometimes mighty small)! There are no such things as "lesser" draconic kin, but lurking among the further branches of the dragon's family tree are many strange and wondrous creatures perhaps less powerful than their cousins but no less crafty or formidable. Shaped by their environment and powerful shapers of it, drakes interact with humans and other races a great deal, and from such relationships and rivalries are great adventures born! The Book of Drakes takes you on a guided tour of the workings and habits of these enigmatic and oft-overlooked creatures. Herein you'll discover More than 20 drakes ready for play, including the crag drake, moon drake, and alehouse drake Beautiful full-color illustrations by Hugo Solis Drake spells, feats, familiars, and abilities A system for building your own drakes for any party of any level, in any environment! From Midgard to your home setting, drakes provide unique adversaries, unusual companions, and compelling NPCs. Don't miss this chance to push your game to the next level.
