Rock In A Hard Place

As the U.S.S. "Enterprise" searches a distant nebula for a missing starship, the crew discovers a long-forgotten colony of humans that is fighting a civil war over whether or not imagination should be legal--Novelist

One of the most extraordinary survival stories ever told -- Aron Ralston's searing account of his six days trapped in one of the most remote spots in America, and how one inspired act of bravery brought him home. It started out as a simple hike in the Utah canyonlands on a warm Saturday afternoon. For Aron Ralston, a twenty-seven-year-old mountaineer and outdoorsman, a walk into the remote Blue John Canyon was a chance to get a break from a winter of solo climbing Colorado's highest and toughest peaks. He'd earned this weekend vacation, and though he met two charming women along the way, by early afternoon he finally found himself in his element: alone, with just the beauty of the natural world all around him. It was 2:41 P.M. Eight miles from his truck, in a deep and narrow slot canyon, Aron was climbing down off a wedged boulder when the rock suddenly, and terrifyingly, came loose. Before he could get out of the way, the falling stone pinned his right hand and wrist against the canyon wall. And so began six days of hell for Aron Ralston. With scant water and little food, no jacket for the painfully cold nights, and the terrible knowledge that he'd told no one where he was headed, he found himself facing a lingering death -- trapped by an 800-pound boulder 100 feet down in the bottom of a canyon. As he eliminated his escape options one by one through the days, Aron faced the full horror of his predicament: By the time any possible search and rescue effort would begin, he'd most probably have died of dehydration, if a flash flood didn't drown him before that. What does one do in the face of almost certain death? Using the video camera from his pack, Aron began recording his grateful good-byes to his family and friends all over the country, thinking back over a life filled with adventure, and documenting a last will and testament with the hope that someone would find it. (For their part, his family and friends had instigated a major search for Aron, the amazing details of which are also documented here for the first time.) The knowledge of their love kept Aron Ralston alive, until a divine inspiration on Thursday morning solved the riddle of the boulder. Aron then committed the most extreme act imaginable to save himself. Between a Rock and a Hard Place -- a brilliantly written, funny, honest, inspiring, and downright astonishing report from the line where death meets life -- will surely take its place in the annals of classic adventure stories.

Autobiography of Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield.

You know the story: God told Abraham he would become a great nation. Then he told him to sacrifice his own (and only) son, Isaac. Abraham obeyed God and was about to kill Isaac—when God intervened. This is a classic 'between a rock and a hard place' situation. So how was Abraham able to obey in the face of losing it all? Or to bring it closer to home—what would you have done? In this powerful book, Tony Evans reveals what to do when your love for God is tested. According to Evans, “When you don’t know God, or when you either forget or dismiss what is true about Him, then you don’t know how to respond…” Moving through passages in both the Old and New Testaments, Evans makes a powerful case for obedient living as the key to an abundant life.

When you fall in love with a rock star, anything can happen. . . . Libby In an instant, Libby's life went from picture-perfect to a nightmare. After surviving a terrible car accident, Libby is abandoned by her father and left with her controlling aunt. A new town, a new school, no friends—Libby is utterly alone. But then she meets Peter. Peter The lead singer in a rock band with his brothers, Peter hates that his parents overly manage his life. Constantly surrounded by family, Peter just wants to get away. And when he meets Libby, he's finally found the one person who only wants to be with him, not the rock star. But while Peter battles his family's growing interference in both his music and his personal life, Libby struggles with her aunt, who turns nastier each day. And even though Libby and Peter desperately want to be together, their drastically different lives threaten to keep them apart forever.

A wilderness trek becomes a life-and-death situation in this riveting tale by the award-winning author of Up Country and Dogwolf. When their canoe tips, two boys--one of whom is diabetic--lose all their supplies and must depend on sheer wits and courage to survive.

The autobiography of a 15-year-old New Yorker who is dying of AIDS. Anthony Johnson was born in 1977 and for 11 years was physically and sexually abused by his parents. However, this book is not a grimly explicit account of those years; it is a journal about the strength of friendship and the joy of growing up in New York, the wonders of knowledge and the happiness in his new adopted family. The voice is that of a bright teenager who has belief in the goodness of mankind despite the horrors he has and is suffering.

Where else can that well-known phrase be better applied than to a study of the Finns in Sudbury? “Rock” defines the physical reality of the Sudbury setting: rugged hills, mines, farms and forests set in the Precambrian Shield. “Hard” defines the human setting: Finnish immigrants having to contend with the problems and stresses of relocating to a new culture, with livelihoods that required great endurance as well as a tolerance for hazardous conditions. Since 1883 Finnish immigrants in Sudbury, men and women alike, have striven to improve their lot through the options available to them. Despite great obstacles, the Finns never flagged in their unwavering fight for workers’ rights and the union movement. And as agricultural settlers, labour reformers, builders of churches, halls, saunas and athletic fields, Finns left an indelible imprint on the physical and human landscape. In the process they have played an integral part in the transformation of Sudbury from a small struggling rail town to its present role as regional capital of northwestern Ontario. This penetrating study of the cultural geography of the Finns in the Sudbury region provides an international, national and local framework for analysis — a model for future studies of other cultural groups.