1806 results for "Adventure"

Insistence of Vision

David Brin
What may we become? How will we endure? The future is a daunting realm, filled with real and imagined perils. So enter it prepared! Here are vivid tales about possible tomorrows, from the keen eye and colorful pen of David Brin, a modern master of speculative fiction. Visit a chillingly plausible tomorrow, when prisoners may be sent to asteroidal gulags. Or might prisons vanish and felons roam, seeing only what society allows? Suppose, amid lavish success, we gain the superpower to fly! Will we even appreciate it… or will we find new reasons to complain? In "Mars Opposition," you'll experience an alien invasion like no other, confronting humanity with a stark and terrible choice… followed by several more tales of conquest from beyond, each of them wildly different. On the other hand, might fantastically potent new beings emerge out of ourselves, as revealed in "Chrysalis”? Featuring guest appearances by Gregory Benford, Jules Verne, and Galileo, this adventure takes you beyond the very singularity in “Stones of Significance,” pondering what could happen after humans are like gods. And “Reality Check” asks one of you readers – just one of you – to wake up! Tomorrow awaits. We can face it and prevail. So long as our stance is brave INSISTENCE OF VISION.
Story Plant 2016-03-22 374 pages

P.K. Pinkerton and the Petrified Man

Caroline Lawrence
The second book in a rip-roaring adventure series set in the wild west! After escaping the ruthless desperados, P.K. finally feels safe in Virginia City and is ready to set up a new private eye business. But all the mysteries in town seem to be pranks—until the day P.K. meets a young maid named Martha. Martha’s employer has been found dead . . . and now the killer is after her. The mystery takes a grave turn when Martha disappears, so P.K. consults Poker Face Jace, an expert at people reading. With his help, P.K. inspects saloons and billiard rooms, and even tries sneaking into the coroner’s office. But time is quickly running out for P.K., and Martha’s life has never been in more danger.
Penguin Young Readers Group 2014-01-09 336 pages

Origin uncertain: unraveling the mysteries of etymology

Liberman, Anatoly
"Lost origins of words revealed. We like to recount that goodbye started out as "god be with you," that whiskey comes from the Gaelic for "water of life," or that avocado originated as the Aztec word for "testicle." But there are many words with origins unknown, disputed, or so buried in old journals that they may as well be lost to the general public. In Origin Uncertain: Unraveling the Mysteries of Etymology, eminent etymologist Anatoly Liberman draws on his professional expertise and etymological database to tell the stories of less understood words such as nerd, fake, ain't, hitchhike, trash, curmudgeon, and quiz, as well as puzzling idioms like kick the bucket and pay through the nose. By casting a net so broadly, the book addresses language history, language usage (including grammar), history (both ancient and modern), religion, superstitions, and material culture. Writing in the spirit of adventure through the annals of word origins, Liberman also shows how historical linguists construct etymologies, how to evaluate competing explanations, and how to pursue further research"--
Oxford University Press 2024 330 pages

American Grandmaster: four decades of chess adventures

Benjamin, Joel
Joel Benjamin is one of the most prominent faces in the history of US chess. At thirteen years of age he broke Bobby Fischer's record as the youngest ever national master, and this was followed by countless tournament successes. Perhaps most famously, in 1997 he hit the headlines when he became the chess consultant for IBM's Deep Blue computer, which made history by beating World Champion Garry Kasparov in an epic encounter. In American Grandmaster, Benjamin takes the reader on a journey through chess adventures spanning more than thirty years. Tracing through his own career, from being a prodigy in the 'Fischer boom' era thorough to an experienced Grandmaster with many titles, Benjamin is in a unique position to highlight the major changes that have occurred both in US and international chess throughout the last four decades.This book includes: Instructive annotations of his favourite gamesAnecdotes and reflections from thirty years of US and worldwide chess eventsNew perspectives on the legendary Kasparov-Deep Blue matchInsights into how Grandmasters earn their livingA deep look into the current major issues of ches
Everyman Chess 2007 268 pages

The Adventures of Miss Petitfour

Anne Michaels
Miss Petitfour enjoys having adventures that are "just the right size - fitting into a single, magical day." She is an expert at baking and eating fancy iced cakes, and her favorite mode of travel is par avion . On windy days, she takes her sixteen cats out for an airing: Minky, Misty, Taffy, Purrsia, Pirate, Mustard, Moutarde, Hemdela, Earring, Grigorovitch, Clasby, Captain Captain, Captain Catkin, Captain Cothespin, Your Shyness and Sizzles. With the aid of her favorite tea party tablecloth as a makeshift balloon, Miss Petitfour and her charges fly over her village, having many little adventures along the way. Join Miss Petitfour and her equally eccentric felines on five magical outings -- a search for marmalade, to a spring jumble sale, on a quest for "birthday cheddar", the retrieval of a lost rare stamp and as they compete in the village's annual Festooning Festival. A whimsical, beautifully illustrated collection of tales that celebrates language, storytelling and small pleasures, especially the edible kind!
Tundra 2015-11-03 144 pages

Stalking Elijah: adventures with today's Jewish mystical masters

Kamenetz, Rodger
Profound and often raucously funny, Kamenetz's quirky tale carries him from a conversation with the Dalai Lama (in which he valiantly "contravened forty-six years of my own noisy cultural conditioning" to keep from stepping on the silence) to breaking matzah with him a year later at a Passover seder for Tibetan freedom. Along the way he learns kabbalah poolside at the Beverly Hilton, meditates in a T-shirt shop with Baton Rouge's three resident Tibetan Buddhists, observes the Sabbath in a plastic tent with Jewish addicts and cons in an inter-city slum, and "calls out" to God with new-Hasidic abandon while racing down the San Bernadino freeway. Stalking Elijah teaches at every step of the path how to celebrate the Jewish tradition in the context of feminism, contemporary science, and interfaith dialogue.
HarperSanFrancisco 1997 370 pages

The quark and the jaguar: adventures in the simple and the complex

Gell-Mann, Murray
This book is about how the wonderful diversity of the universe can arise out of a set of fairly simple basic laws. It is written by an expert in both the fundamental laws and the complex structures that they can produce.' Stephen Hawking's acclaim of Murray Gell-Mann's literary debut is typical of the reception the book received on first publication in 1994. From one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists comes this unique, highly personal vision of the connections between the basic laws of physics and the complexity and diversity of the natural world. THE QUARK AND THE JAGUAR - the simple and the complex - is an irresistibly engaging and rewarding introduction to the life's work of physicist, polymath and Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-Mann.
Abacus 2003 392 pages

The adventures of Johnny Bunko: the last career guide you'll ever need

Pink, Daniel H.
There's never been a career guide like this book. It is fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. Step by step he builds a career, illustrating as he does the 6 core lessons of finding, keeping, and flourishing in satisfying work: 1. There is no plan. 2. Forget about your weaknesses. 3. Persistence trumps talent. 4. It's not about you. 5. Make excellent mistakes. 6. Leave an imprint. Smart, engaging, and insightful, this book offers practical advice for anyone looking to start a rewarding career. -- Publisher details.
Headline Business Plus 2008 149 pages

Revenge of the nerd, or, ... The singular adventures of the man who would be Booger: a memoir

Armstrong, Curtis
"Risky Business. Revenge of the Nerds. Better Off Dead. Moonlighting. Supernatural. American Dad. New Girl. What do all of these movies and television shows have in common? Curtis Armstrong. A legendary comedic second banana to a litany of major stars, Curtis is forever cemented in the public imagination as Booger from Revenge of the Nerds. A classically trained actor, Curtis began his incredible 40-year career on stage but progressed rapidly to film and television. He was typecast early and it proved to be the best thing that could have happened. But there's more to Curtis' story than that. Born and bred a nerd, he spent his early years between Detroit, a city so nerdy that the word was coined there in 1951, and, improbably, Geneva, Switzerland. His adolescence and early adulthood was spent primarily between the covers of a book and indulging his nerdy obsessions. It was only when he found his true calling, as an actor and unintentional nerd icon, that he found true happiness. With whip-smart, self-effacing humor, Armstrong takes us on a most unlikely journey--one nerd's hilarious, often touching rise to the middle. He started his life as an outcast and matured into...well, an older, slightly paunchier, hopefully wiser outcast. In Hollywood, as in life, that counts as winning the game"--
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press 2017 336 pages

Curious George, tadpole trouble

Williams, Mark London
George is in charge of taking care of his friend's tadpoles, and he knows just what to do! He takes them out for some exercise in the pond, but what will he do when they don't return A perfect book for early readers on the concept of metamorphosis. Curious George's friend Bill has put him in charge of several tadpoles. George sends the tadpoles for a nice swim in the lagoon, but to his dismay, the tadpoles don't return! Each time he goes back to the lake he tries to find the tadpoles, but he finds only tadpole-like creatures without tails . . . and with legs. A trip to the museum teaches George about the development of tadpoles into frogs, and he and Bill are happy to make the acquaintance of their new froggy friends! The animated series Curious George is available to watch on Peacock, NBC Universal's streaming platform.
Houghton Mifflin 2007 24 pages

Animal truth: and other stories

Muir, Sharona
"Animal Truth and Other Stories is a collection of eco-fabulist tales in which adventures with fantastic animals and real science lead to metamorphoses of the heart. Familiar legends, from Faust and Oedipus to werewolves and time travel, appear in radically new ways: An artist obsessed with species extinction unwittingly summons a demonic double when he creates a "banquet" featuring a baked mermaid. A brilliant woman studying a rare fish makes a soul-shattering discovery about motherhood. A time-travelling billionaire escapes his modern life only to have his heart broken by a lovely creature in Earth's remote past. Each tale in this collection turns into gold the prickling straw of anxieties about our continued life on the planet. By turns playful, terrifying, haunting, and sensuous, these stories inspire wonder at the interwoven lives of human and nonhuman beings"--
University of New Orleans Press 2022-11-22 149 pages