The Mark of Ran

The Mark of Ran
Author: Paul Kearney
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005-11-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0553383612

A stunning blend of visionary storytelling and majestic prose, The Mark of Ran is a new masterpiece of imaginative fiction. In this epic adventure, Paul Kearney records the voyages of a reluctant hero, a band of outcasts, and a quest into the unknown no one has ever dared before . . . In a world abandoned by its Creator, an ancient race once existed—one with powers mankind cannot imagine. Some believe they were the last of the angels. Others think they were demons. Rol Cortishane was raised in a remote fishing village with no idea of his true place in the world. But in his veins runs the blood of this long-forgotten race and he shares their dangerous destiny. Driven from home, accused of witchcraft and black magic, Rol takes refuge in the brooding tower sanctuary of the enigmatic Michal Psellos. There Rol is trained in the assassin’s craft and tutored by the beautiful but troubled Rowen. It’s no accident that Rol and Rowen have been brought together, but the truth about their past is a secret they will have to fight to discover. Now they’ve set their sights across the sea in search of the Hidden City and an adventure that will make them legends . . . if it doesn’ t kill them first. Praise for The Mark of Ran “[A] gritty fantasy swashbuckler . . . Kearney’s crisp, often lyrical writing shines brightest when his characters take to the sea.”—Publishers Weekly “One of the very best fantasy writers around.”—Steven Erikson

Running with the Buffaloes

Running with the Buffaloes
Author: Chris Lear
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2011-04-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0762774576

Top five Best Books About Running, Runner's World Magazine Top three Best Books About Running, readers of Runner's World Magazine (December 2009) A phenomenal portrait of courage and desire that will do for college cross-country what John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink did for college basketball.

Run for Your Life

Run for Your Life
Author: Mark Cucuzzella, MD
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1101912383

A straightforward, easy-to-follow look at the anatomy, biomechanics, and nutrition of running. Dr. Cucuzzella "aims to improve the fitness and well-being of all, from the uninitiated to beginners to veterans who still have new tricks to learn" (Amby Burfoot, Boston Marathon winner, writer at large for Runner’s World magazine, and author of The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life). Despite our natural ability and our human need to run, each year more than half of all runners suffer injuries. Pain and discouragement inevitably follow. Cucuzzella's book outlines the proven, practical techniques to avoid injury and reach the goal of personal fitness and overall health. With clear drawings and black-and-white photographs, the book provides illustrated exercises designed to teach healthy running, along with simple progressions and a running schedule that shows the reader how to tailor their training regimen to their individual needs and abilities.

A Private Life

A Private Life
Author: Ran Chen
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2004
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0231131968

Set against a backdrop of the decades that included the Cultural Revolution and the Tian'anmen Square Incident, A Private Life portrays the effect of that social change and political turbulence on the protagonists inner life as she moves from childhood to early maturity.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2009-08-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307373088

From the best-selling author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and After Dark, a rich and revelatory memoir about writing and running, and the integral impact both have made on his life. In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Haruki Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a slew of critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and—even more important—on his writing. Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and includes settings ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvellous lens of sport emerges a cornucopia of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs and the experience, after the age of fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in distance running.

If Harry Potter Ran General Electric

If Harry Potter Ran General Electric
Author: Tom Morris
Publisher: Crown Currency
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2006-05-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0385518919

However important the magic of wands, brooms, cauldrons, potions, and spells might be to the vivid story telling of [the Harry Potter] books, it is merely incidental to their philosophy of life…. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard someone in a business context say something like “I wish I could just magically solve all these problems” or “I’ll try my best to deal with this, but remember, I’m no magician.” What is particularly interesting is that the most difficult problems that the people in Harry’s world face are rarely solved with just magic, but rather by the use of intelligence, reasoning, planning, courage, determination, persistence, resourcefulness, creativity, fidelity, friendship, and many other qualities traditionally known by the philosophers in our world as virtues…. The meaning of life is not to be found in elixirs or incantations, secret words or exotic objects with esoteric powers, but in real moral virtue and the magic of what it can help us do….” J. K. Rowling’s novels about Harry Potter and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry have captured the imaginations of people everywhere. In IF HARRY POTTER RAN GENERAL ELECTRIC, bestselling business author Tom Morris (IF ARISTOTLE RAN GENERAL MOTORS) uncovers the values and timeless truths that underlie Rawling’s hugely popular books and illuminate the lessons they offer to all of us in our careers and daily lives. But, you say, Harry Potter lives in a world of magic? What can we possibly learn to apply to our own careers and everyday lives? Morris shows that the most difficult problems Harry and his friends face are rarely solved by the use of magic alone. Rather, they are conquered by intelligence, reasoning, determination, creativity, friendship, and a host of other classic virtues–the very qualities, in fact, that make for success in every aspect of our lives. Blending an array of provocative examples from the novels with thought-provoking commentary on contemporary management practices, IF HARRY POTTER RAN GENERAL ELECTRIC offers readers a master’s course on leadership and ethics, told in an engaging and insightful way.

Mark's Story

Mark's Story
Author: Linda S. Johnson
Publisher: Author House
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2007-09-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1467092851

Mark’s Story is a story of a boy growing up in the U.S. in the late 1950’s and 1960’s and the changes in his life. He grew up with a closeness to nature, which was later replaced by a closeness to the world of drugs. Mark’s stories are true and funny and unbelievably wild. He gradually finds his way out of the drug world after some tough times.

The Dreamt Land

The Dreamt Land
Author: Mark Arax
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 577
Release: 2019-05-21
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1101875216

A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.