Stranded At The Top Of The World

The True Story Behind the Events on 9/11 that Inspired Broadway’s Smash Hit Musical Come from Away, Featuring All New Material from the Author When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000. The citizens of Gander met the stranded passengers with an overwhelming display of friendship and goodwill. As the passengers stepped from the airplanes, exhausted, hungry and distraught after being held on board for nearly 24 hours while security checked all of the baggage, they were greeted with a feast prepared by the townspeople. Local bus drivers who had been on strike came off the picket lines to transport the passengers to the various shelters set up in local schools and churches. Linens and toiletries were bought and donated. A middle school provided showers, as well as access to computers, email, and televisions, allowing the passengers to stay in touch with family and follow the news. Over the course of those four days, many of the passengers developed friendships with Gander residents that they expect to last a lifetime. As a show of thanks, scholarship funds for the children of Gander have been formed and donations have been made to provide new computers for the schools. This book recounts the inspiring story of the residents of Gander, Canada, whose acts of kindness have touched the lives of thousands of people and been an example of humanity and goodwill.

The centuries-long quest for the fabled Northwest Passage rivals the story of Antarctic exploration for heroism, drama, and tragedy. Expedition after expedition set off in search of a sea route connecting Europe with Asia's riches; each expedition suffered extreme hardship and ended in defeat, until Roald Amundsen finally succeeded in 1903-06. Across the Top of the World brings this incredible saga to life through exhaustive research, grim firsthand accounts, and hundreds of dramatic images. Paintings, engravings, and photos of the intrepid men and their ships, as well as of relics and archaeological sites, provide a poignant and compelling link with the past, while landscapes and seascapes of the harsh yet beautiful Arctic illustrate the challenges that faced explorers. Covering all the major expeditions in detail, and written with passion and authority, this book is both a scholarly reference and an eminently readable history of Arctic exploration.

Seven stories of mystery, suspense, and adventure featuring a coin from the future, a post-apocalyptic nightmare, a soldier surrounded by ghosts, and a rock concert turned séance! Plus a clown war, a scientist who thinks he's found the way to Heaven, and the true meaning of love! Top Of The World – in the wake of a planet wide plague, three mountaineers decide to climb Mt. Everest. Their argument is simple: "Why should dreams die, just because the world did?" But first they must cross the Bering Sea, then continental Asia, before they face the mountain itself. Along the way are the infected, the mockeries of humanity that stand in their way and threaten to contaminate them. And if they do make it to the top of the world, the question remains: what then? What is left for them in a world where everything they've ever known has been lost? The Coin – When Richard Harding’s uncle dies he leaves his nephew his coin collection, complete with a brand new 2012 dime. The problem is the year is 1982, and as the decades fade away, Richard must determine the significance of the coin before 2012 arrives. Stay Off The East Side – For years the east side was home to hobos, hookers, and bums. But now that it’s become gentrified, all the little kiddies want clowns for their birthday parties. The problem? The east side belongs to the local clown union 1344, and the 1802 doesn’t like it. They want a piece, and they’re willing to fight to get it! Houdini – Journey back to the hair metal days of the ‘80s and follow the band Miracle Machine as it goes on tour to promote its self-titled album. They’re a band on the rise, and their top song tells the story of Harry Houdini himself. The best part of their show is when they try to summon him to the stage as part of a séance, and with thousands of eager fans chanting his name, will Houdini answer their call? Valentine’s Day – It’s a story as old as the Earth itself: boy meets girl, boy falls in love, girl doesn’t love boy back. That forces the boy to get his hands on a love potion, but isn’t there a saying about getting what you wish for? Everything Is Everything – Dr. Michael Webber is a physics professor at a small university when his wife and children are killed in a plane crash. He then uses his knowledge of quantum mechanics to try to answer two questions: is Heaven real, and can he find it if it is? Haunted – When Mark Doren returns home from Iraq with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, he takes the only job he can find, that of night watchman in a downtown office tower. Then he starts to see ghosts, and as he walks its halls at night, he becomes painfully aware that he is not alone…. These are the stories that await within the pages of Top of the World!

Winter came early to the Arctic in 1897. Frigid temperatures brought pack ice that filled the waters north of the Bering Strait. As a result, virtually the entire North American whaling fleet was trapped, stranding 300 men to die of starvation and exposure. Three escaping ships raised the alarm. Answering the call, three officers from the early U.S. Coast Guard and two missionaries volunteered to travel over 1,500 miles through the Arctic winter to reach the shipwrecked whalers. The rescuers' perilous four-month journey, through mountainous territory and barren sub-zero landscapes never before traversed, was fraught with blizzards, wolves, steep terrain, unstable ice, hunters, and bone-piercing cold. Unaware that a rescue team was on the way, the shipwrecked men endured freezing temperatures, malnutrition, and scurvy before falling into general lawlessness. Their struggles and those of the rescuers are meticulously recreated here from century-old journals. This extraordinary chronicle of hardship and heroism will take you to the heart of one of America's greatest maritime disasters-and the greatest Arctic rescue story in history. "]€]a fascinating, almost unbelievable story that should find an audience among those interested in maritime history, rescue tales and life in the Alaskan territory." Publishers Weekly

This book charts the life of two young American teachers immersed in an Afghan village, and later in Kabul, from 1973-1976, before the onset of decades of conflict. In this turn back to the memories coded and buried in those years, and in the flashes to more recent events and reflections, the book portrays stories, scenes, people and realities long lost. In the minute particulars and in the large, political and cultural strokes which made up that complex country of hospitable people who shaped the writer's life in unpredictable ways, one finds the seeds which grew to shape a country, a region, an endless war, and which now impact a new millennium.

In his day Walter Wellman (1858–1934) was one of America’s most famous men. To his contemporaries, he seemed like a character from a Jules Verne novel. He led five expeditions in search of the North Pole, two by dogsled and three by dirigible airship, and in 1910 made the first attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air—which the self-styled expert on aerial warfare saw as a mission of world peace. He endured hardships, cheated death on more than one occasion, and surrounded himself with a team of assistants as eccentric and audacious as he was. In addition to his daring adventures, Wellman became a nationally known political reporter and unofficial spokesman for the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations. He was not the first newspaper-sponsored adventurer, but more than any of his predecessors he turned exploration into a real-time media event, and his reputation both flourished and suffered because of it. Wellman lived during a time of rapid social and technological change, when explorers were racing to fill in the last remaining blank spots on the map and when aviation promised to fulfill humanity’s greatest hopes and darkest fears. Flight to the Top of the World is a window into Wellman’s time and illuminates many of its dreams and contradictions.

This is part 2 of the Gerald Masseys work about the comparisons between the Judeo-Christian religion and the Egyptian religion. No one ever understood the mythology and ritual of Ancient Egypt so well as Gerald Massey since the time of the Ancient Philosophers of Egypt. This book is one of the best of its kind and a must-have for every student of Egyptian mythology and history.