Islands In The Sky

Island in the Sky, first published in 1944, is aviator Ernest Gann's exciting, realistic novel of survival in the far north of Canada. The Corsair, a plane attached to the Army Air Transport Command during the Second World War, is forced to land after heavy icing of the wings makes the plane unflyable. The crew look to Dooley, the pilot for guidance in order to survive the frigid conditions, and from support bases and search aircraft, a rescue mission is mounted. Island in the Sky was the subject of a 1953 movie starring John Wayne.

Sky Island L. Frank Baum - Sky Island: Being the Further Adventures of Trot and Cap'n Bill after Their Visit to the Sea Fairies is a children's fantasy novel written by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by John R. Neill, and published in 1912 by the Reilly & Britton Company[1]the same constellation of forces that produced the Oz books in the first decades of the twentieth century. As the full title indicates, Sky Island is a sequel to Baum's The Sea Fairies of 1911. Both books were intended as parts of a projected long-running fantasy series to replace the Oz books. Given the relatively tepid reception of the first book in the series, however, Baum tried to attract young readers by including two characters from his Oz mythos in Sky IslandButton-Bright and Polychrome, originally introduced in The Road to Oz (1909).

The adventures of two teenaged cousins who live in a place called the Floating Islands, one of whom is studying to become a mage and the other one of the legendary island flyers.

The Falklands, at the time of this story, were a little known group of islands miles away from anywhere that most people hadn't even heard of. Of course, nearly everyone has now heard of them and most even have a good idea where they are. Back in the late 60's and early 70's they were a sleepy spot on the map where nothing much happened. They didn't bother anyone and no-one bothered them. For two hundred years nothing much had changed in that respect and the modern world had only just begun to impinge on the islanders' way of life. There was no TV and, of course, no internet. Telephone communications to "Home", as the UK was called, were limited to a few minutes per day when a particular satellite passed by and then only from a special room in Port Stanley, its capital. The author was pitched into a way of life that was completely unlike anything most Brits ever experience and this book describes his struggle to adapt to a new way of life at the same time as learning how to teach in extraordinary circumstances. The things that happened to him were unusual, often very funny (in retrospect) and his story gives the reader a unique insight to the Falklands at that time, the place and its people. The islands have, of course, changed dramatically since the war of 1982 and the advent of fishing licences, tourism and, latterly, oil exploration have had a major impact, not to mention the presence of thousands of military personnel. The sovereignty row with Argentina rumbles on and the islanders' future has a dark cloud looming over the horizon. It is in the hands of politicians outside of their homeland. This book depicts an altogether more innocent, unspoilt and peaceful time.

Homer provides an enormous challenge to the student; the potentialities of these lengthy texts are legion and the scholarship vast. The author has relied upon her knowledge of symbolic discourse to make a fresh study of the Odyssey, prioritising early neighbouring religions, their mythology, and shamanic practice. The latter has yielded particularly rich material concerning the axis of the world (axis mundi) as a route to the stars and the world of the gods. Man’s shared experience of the night skies has also provided some remarkably consistent patterns for the geography of an Otherworld in the skies and the means to reach the gods residing there. By applying world-wide motifs of the soul journey, the initiatory process and established points of transformation along a solar path, it has been possible to recast the hero’s sea voyage in cosmic terms and give a celestial homeland to the many islands visited by Odysseus and his companions. The result gives a surprising twist to the meaning of the epic and reveals Homer the poet as both philosopher and student of the cosmos. The ‘wine-dark sea’ is revealed as none other than the night sky which serves as backdrop to the hero’s adventures among the stars, and Ithaka itself with its many conflicts finds a place at the very centre of the known universe of Bronze Age Greece.

An action-packed thriller from global bestseller Wilbur Smith The Syrian plane disintegrated, evaporating in a gush of silvery smoke, rent through with bright white lightning, and the ejecting pilot's body was blown clear of the fuselage. For an instant it was outlined ahead of David's screen, cruciform in shape with arms and legs thrown wide, the helmet still on the head, and the clothing ballooning in the rush of air.' He chose this life. And it may cost him everything. From a young age it's clear that David Morgan is 'bird'-a natural pilot, most at home in the air. In the South African Air Force he receives plaudits beyond his years, and even his family begins to accept that David will do anything to stay away from the Morgan billion-dollar business, and to keep flying instead. Following his dream and in pursuit of Debra, a beautiful young Israeli writer, David soon joins the Israeli Defence Force and finds himself caught up in the country's struggles. But when he pays a terrible price for his choices, will he be able to become the man he always hoped -or will he choose to disappear into the skies?

From the bestselling author of Einstein's Dreams—“an elegant and moving paean to our spiritual quest for meaning in an age of science" (The New York Times Book Review). As a physicist, Alan Lightman has always held a scientific view of the world. But one summer evening, while looking at the stars from a small boat at sea, Lightman was overcome by the overwhelming sensation that he was merging with something larger than himself—an eternal unity, something absolute and immaterial. The result is an inspired, lyrical meditation from the acclaimed author of Einstein's Dreams that explores these seemingly contradictory impulses. Lightman draws on sources ranging from Saint Augustine's conception of absolute truth to Einstein's theory of relativity, and gives us a profound inquiry into the human desire for truth and meaning, and a journey along the different paths of religion and science that become part of that quest. This small but provocative book explores the tension between our yearning for certainty and permanence versus the modern scientific view that all things in the physical world are uncertain and impermanent.