The Longest Street


Book Description




The Longest Line on the Map


Book Description

From the award-winning author of American Canopy, a dazzling account of the world’s longest road, the Pan-American Highway, and the epic quest to link North and South America, a dramatic story of commerce, technology, politics, and the divergent fates of the Americas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Pan-American Highway, monument to a century’s worth of diplomacy and investment, education and engineering, scandal and sweat, is the longest road in the world, passable everywhere save the mythic Darien Gap that straddles Panama and Colombia. The highway’s history, however, has long remained a mystery, a story scattered among government archives, private papers, and fading memories. In contrast to the Panama Canal and its vast literature, the Pan-American Highway—the United States’ other great twentieth-century hemispheric infrastructure project—has become an orphan of the past, effectively erased from the story of the “American Century.” The Longest Line on the Map uncovers this incredible tale for the first time and weaves it into a tapestry that fascinates, informs, and delights. Rutkow’s narrative forces the reader to take seriously the question: Why couldn’t the Americas have become a single region that “is” and not two near irreconcilable halves that “are”? Whether you’re fascinated by the history of the Americas, or you’ve dreamed of driving around the globe, or you simply love world records and the stories behind them, The Longest Line on the Map is a riveting narrative, a lost epic of hemispheric scale.




The Sesame Effect


Book Description

The Sesame Effect details the wide-ranging work of Sesame Workshop and its productions across the world. With an emphasis on impact and evidence from research on projects in low- and middle-income countries, the book tells the stories behind the development of an international family of Muppet characters created for the locally produced adaptations of Sesame Street. Each chapter highlights the educational message of international co-productions and presents the cultural context of each project. Readers will understand the specific needs of children living in a given locale, as well as gain insight into the educational drivers of each project. These projects often deal with difficult issues, from race relations in the United States, to HIV/AIDS education in South Africa, to building respect across cultural divides in the Middle East. Readers will see how local productions have helped build a new mindset that values the importance of early childhood education, and how Sesame Street promotes a brighter future by building children’s academic skills, encouraging healthy habits, and by fostering attitudes that counter negative stereotypes and create appreciation of and respect for others. The Sesame Effect shows how, when magnified across the millions of children touched by the various international programs, Sesame Workshop and its projects are making a difference around the world.




The Longest Road


Book Description

Traces the author's 2011 road trip from the southernmost to the northernmost points of the United States to experience firsthand the country's diversity and political tensions in the face of a historic economic recession.




America's Longest Run


Book Description

America&’s Longest Run: A History of the Walnut Street Theatre traces the history of America&’s oldest theater. The Philadelphia landmark has been at or near the center of theatrical activity since it opened, as a circus, on February 2, 1809. This book documents the players and productions that appeared at this venerable house and the challenges the Walnut has faced from economic crises, changing tastes, technological advances, and competition from new media. The Walnut&’s history is a classic American success story. Built in the early years of the nineteenth century, the Walnut responded to the ever-changing tastes and desires of the theatergoing public. Originally operated as a stock company, the Walnut has offered up every conceivable form of entertainment&—pageantry and spectacle, opera, melodrama, musical theater, and Shakespeare. It escaped the wrecking ball during the Depression by operating as a burlesque house, a combination film and vaudeville house, and a Yiddish theater, before becoming the Philadelphia headquarters for the Federal Theatre Project. Because Philadelphia is located so close to New York City, the Walnut has served as a tryout house for many Broadway-bound shows, including A Streetcar Named Desire, The Diary of Anne Frank, and A Raisin in the Sun. Today, the Walnut operates as a nonprofit performing arts center. It is one of the most successful producing theaters in the country, with more than 350,000 attending performances each year.




The Longest Way Home


Book Description

The author, a travel writer and actor, delivers a memoir about how travel helped him become the man he wanted to be, helping him overcome life-long fears and confront his resistance to commitment. From time immemorial, travel has been a pursuit of passion, from adventurers of old seeking gold or new lands, to today's spiritual and pleasure seekers who follow in the footsteps of Elizabeth Gilbert. Some see travel as a form of light-hearted escapism while others believe it has the power to open your mind, forcing you to confront your demons, and discover your true self. The author belongs to this second category of traveler. His memoir follows his excursions to Patagonia, the Amazon, Costa Rica, Baltimore, Vienna, Kilimanjaro, Dublin, and beyond. He uses his wanderlust to examine his motives and desires, and explore his ambivalence about commitment. He ponders his personal life, his acting career, and his impulse to leave home, all building toward one of the most significant moments of his life: his wedding day. His message about the transformative power of travel is universal, and his exploration of the nature and passion of relationships, both fleeting and enduring, strikes a chord with every man and woman who has ever wondered at the vicissitudes of the human heart.




Lafourche Parish


Book Description

Lafourche is a parish rich in history and culture known for its close-knit, family-centered communities. The towns and communities of Lafourche were settled along its namesake, Bayou Lafourche, which bisects the parish from its northern boundary to its southern boundary at the Gulf of Mexico. Because of the continuous pattern of homes and businesses built along the bayou, many refer to the bayou as the Longest Street in the World. The parish was originally inhabited by Native American tribes and later by European, African, and English settlers. Many of the residents of Lafourche can trace their ancestry back to these early settlers, strengthening the sense of community that is distinctive to southern Louisiana. The fertile bayou delta fostered small vegetable farms as well as large sugarcane plantations that continue to thrive. The numerous waterways and marshes of the parish produce bountiful catches of fish, seafood, and other wildlife, giving rise to its reputation as a sportsmen s paradise. The parish s economy is also made up of a shipbuilding industry and the onshore and offshore oil industry."




Icarus Down


Book Description

Earth's survivors cling to life on an unforgiving, distant planet, next to the sun! Three generations after the crash of the colony ship Icarus, Iapyx is barely hanging on: one of thirteen cities suspended halfway down deep chasms. The sun on the diamond lands above will kill a man in less than five minutes. The ticktock monsters in the fog forest below are a little slower -- but quite a bit smarter. An electromagnetic wash has disabled the computers, the radios, even the lightbulbs. It's the steam and clockwork age reborn: a careful society, rationed and stratified. Which suits Simon Daud just fine. Simon likes the rules, and knows his place -- in the shadow of his older brother, Isaac. All he wants is to earn his wings as an ornithopter pilot and get to work in the flight bays. But on his final test flight, something goes wrong. Isaac is killed. Simon is burned; his body will never be the same. Neither will his world. Not everything in Iapyx is quite as it seems, and through his rehabilitation Simon falls into the middle of a conspiracy that will bring everything he's ever known to the ground. Down in the fog forest, monsters await -- but so does the truth . . . if Simon can survive long enough to find it.




The Great Mental Models, Volume 1


Book Description

Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.




Seattle Stairway Walks


Book Description

CLICK HERE to download Jake and Cathy Jaramillo's favorite walk from the book, "The Olmstead Vision" (Provide us with a little information and we'll send your download directly to your inbox) * The only guidebook to stairway walks in Seattle * Explore Seattle neighborhoods in a new way with these interesting walks in Seattle * Written for people of all ages who want to get outside, exercise, and explore Often called a “city of neighbor-hoods,” Seattle is shaped by soaring mounds like Queen Anne and Capitol Hill and by indentations such as Ravenna Ravine and Deadhorse Canyon. Weaving together the hills, bluffs, and canyons are stairs -- lots and lots of stairs. In fact, there are over 600 publicly accessible Seattle stairways within the city limits! And to explore Seattle by these stairs opens up stunning views and a whole new, intimate side of the Emerald City. Seattle Stairway Walks: An Up-and-Down Guide to City Neighborhoods is the city's first guidebook to 25 of the best neighborhood walks that feature public Seattle stairways. Each route description includes driving and public transit directions to the starting point, full-color photos, a detailed map, QR codes for saving abbreviated directions on your smart phone, tips on sections that are family-friendly, suggestions for cafes and pubs for that perfect espresso and sandwich en route, fascinating sidebars on Seattle's neighborhood history and community anecdotes, and much, much more.