ON THE PATH WITH PRESTON SHANK; A Great American Novelette


Book Description

On the Path is an expressive look into the short window span of the main character, Preston Shank. He is a likable soul and could be the offspring of Salinger’s Holden Caulfield and Forrest Gump. Over a forty-eight-hour escapade, Preston encounters numerous events that drastically derail his careful and mundane approach to life. But through strong faith and an unwavering belief in mankind, he perseveres and finds true meaning to life’s adverse nuances. On the Path with Preston Shank is a must read that will have you both laughing and contemplating the unanswerable questions that plague us all.




Here I Am


Book Description

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the bestselling author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Everything is Illuminated and We are the Weather - a rich and moving novel about modern family lives and the ties that bind 'Towering and glorious: a tale of social, familial and marital breakdown and the End of the World. The funniest literary novel I have ever read' The Times 'A rich, beautifully written, ambitious and grandly moving novel, which looks both at the world at large and at the deepest concerns of individual lives' Evening Standard 'Lays bare the interior of a marriage with such intelligence and deep feeling and pitiless clarity, it's impossible to read it and not re-examine your own family' Time 'Astonishing. So sad and so funny and so wry' Scotland on Sunday Jacob and Julia Bloch are about to be tested . . . By Jacob's grandfather, who won't go quietly into a retirement home. By the family reunion, that everyone is dreading. By their son's heroic attempts to get expelled. And by the sexting affair that will rock their marriage. A typical modern American family, the Blochs cling together even as they are torn apart. Which is when catastrophe decides to strike . . . Confronting the enduring question of what it means to be human with inventiveness, playfulness and compassion, Here I Am is a great American family novel for our times, an unmissable read for fans of Jonathan Franzen and Michael Chabon, a masterpiece about how we live now.




The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales


Book Description

" West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives—the hopes, beliefs, and fears—of a people. Like all folklore, these tales reveal much of the history of the region: its isolation and violence, the passions and bloodshed of the Civil War era, the hardships of miners and railroad laborers, and the lingering vitality of Old World traditions.







American Shoemaking


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T.P.'s Weekly


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Scientific American


Book Description

Monthly magazine devoted to topics of general scientific interest.







The Prince of Risk


Book Description

At the crossroads of high finance and international terrorism, a son is searching for his father’s killer. . . Robert "Bobby" Astor is a rising New York hedge fund manager on the cusp of making his biggest deal yet. But everything changes when his father, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, is killed in a brazen attack on the south lawn of the White House while en route to deliver a terrifying secret to the President. In the wake of the attack, Astor’s business begins to crumble. A cryptic clue leads him deeper into the web of lies surrounding his father's murder, and Astor stumbles onto a sophisticated foreign conspiracy that threatens to wipe out not only Astor's own fund but to destroy the entire foundation of the financial system of the United States.




Urban Stormwater Management in the United States


Book Description

The rapid conversion of land to urban and suburban areas has profoundly altered how water flows during and following storm events, putting higher volumes of water and more pollutants into the nation's rivers, lakes, and estuaries. These changes have degraded water quality and habitat in virtually every urban stream system. The Clean Water Act regulatory framework for addressing sewage and industrial wastes is not well suited to the more difficult problem of stormwater discharges. This book calls for an entirely new permitting structure that would put authority and accountability for stormwater discharges at the municipal level. A number of additional actions, such as conserving natural areas, reducing hard surface cover (e.g., roads and parking lots), and retrofitting urban areas with features that hold and treat stormwater, are recommended.