In this thrilling climbing adventure from bestselling author Roland Smith, summiting one of the most isolated mountains in the world may be the easiest thing Peak does. After conquering the mountains in Afghanistan, Peak Marcello goes to Myanmar, a country that has been in the grips of a brutal military regime for more than fifty years, to visit Alessia. When he’s invited to climb the remote Hkakabo Razi, Peak can’t pass up the opportunity. But getting to the mountain will involve a four-week trek through tropical rainforests rife with hazards—from venomous reptiles and leeches to corrupt police and military. This thrilling teen climbing adventure is "the perfect antidote for kids who think books are boring" (Publishers Weekly starred review for Peak). Roland Smith's Peak Marcello's Adventures are: Peak The Edge Ascent Descent

Willi Unsoeld, a legend among mountaineers--a man whom Bill Moyers calls one of the few giants he has ever met--fearlessly challenged the world's highest peaks and inspired a generation of climbers with his legacy. Ascent is the story of his life--a thrilling tale of physical and spiritual adventure that captures the hypnotic force behind this extraordinary personality. From his triumphant conquest of Everest's forbidding West Ridge to the tragic loss of his daughter on the treacherous slopes of Nanda Devi to his final, fatal attempt at Mount Rainier, we see Willi as guru and guide, lover of danger and philosopher of risk--a man whose indomitable spirit triggered such devotion that people followed him fearlessly to extraordinary heights and, sometimes, even to their deaths. A dramatic saga of bravery, daring, and the search for spiritual truth, Ascent brilliantly captures the mythic figure of Willi Unsoeld.

CLICK HERE to download the first 50 pages from (Provide us with a little information and we'll send your download directly to your inbox) "This finely crafted adventure tale runs on adrenaline but also something else: brutal honesty." —The Wall Street Journal "I couldn't lay it down until it was all finished (12:40 a.m.!)... A fascinating and beautifully-written story." —Bradford Washburn * One of National Geographic Adventure's "The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time" * Spring 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount McKinley * New edition includes a revised preface, new prologue, and new afterword describing more recent winter attempts on McKinley In 1967, eight men attempted North America's highest summit: Mount McKinley (now known as Denali) had been climbed before—but never in winter. Plagued by doubts and cold, group tension and a crevasse tragedy, the expedition tackled McKinley in minimal hours of daylight and fierce storms. They were trapped at three different camps above 14,000 feet during a six-day blizzard and faced the ultimate low temperature of -148° F. Minus 148° is Art Davidson's stunning personal narrative, supplemented by diary excerpts from team members George Wichman, John Edwards, Dave Johnston, and Greg Blomberg. Davidson retells the team's fears and frictions—and ultimate triumph—with an honesty that has made this gripping survival story a mountaineering classic for over 40 years. Minus 148° is featured among many "best of" reading lists, including National Geographic Adventure's "The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of all Time." "At twenty-two I came to regard the first expedition to Mt. McKinley in the winter as a journey into an unexplored land. No one had lived on North America's highest ridges in the winter twilight. No one knew how low the temperatures would drop, or how penetrating the cold would be when the wind blew. For thousands of years McKinley's storms had raged by themselves." —Minus 148° This title is part of our LEGENDS AND LORE series. Click here > to learn more.

Describes how a talented rock climber survived a double amputation at seventeen to return to his chosen sport.

The 10th anniversary edition, with new chapters on the crash, Chimerica, and cryptocurrency "[An] excellent, just in time guide to the history of finance and financial crisis." —The Washington Post "Fascinating." —Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek In this updated edition, Niall Ferguson brings his classic financial history of the world up to the present day, tackling the populist backlash that followed the 2008 crisis, the descent of "Chimerica" into a trade war, and the advent of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, with his signature clarity and expert lens. The Ascent of Money reveals finance as the backbone of history, casting a new light on familiar events: the Renaissance enabled by Italian foreign exchange dealers, the French Revolution traced back to a stock market bubble, the 2008 crisis traced from America's bankruptcy capital, Memphis, to China's boomtown, Chongqing. We may resent the plutocrats of Wall Street but, as Ferguson argues, the evolution of finance has rivaled the importance of any technological innovation in the rise of civilization. Indeed, to study the ascent and descent of money is to study the rise and fall of Western power itself.

“Full of fascinating insights drawn from an impressive range of disciplines, The Ascent of Information casts the familiar and the foreign in a dramatic new light.” —Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe Your information has a life of its own, and it’s using you to get what it wants. One of the most peculiar and possibly unique features of humans is the vast amount of information we carry outside our biological selves. But in our rush to build the infrastructure for the 20 quintillion bits we create every day, we’ve failed to ask exactly why we’re expending ever-increasing amounts of energy, resources, and human effort to maintain all this data. Drawing on deep ideas and frontier thinking in evolutionary biology, computer science, information theory, and astrobiology, Caleb Scharf argues that information is, in a very real sense, alive. All the data we create—all of our emails, tweets, selfies, A.I.-generated text and funny cat videos—amounts to an aggregate lifeform. It has goals and needs. It can control our behavior and influence our well-being. And it’s an organism that has evolved right alongside us. This symbiotic relationship with information offers a startling new lens for looking at the world. Data isn’t just something we produce; it’s the reason we exist. This powerful idea has the potential to upend the way we think about our technology, our role as humans, and the fundamental nature of life. The Ascent of Information offers a humbling vision of a universe built of and for information. Scharf explores how our relationship with data will affect our ongoing evolution as a species. Understanding this relationship will be crucial to preventing our data from becoming more of a burden than an asset, and to preserving the possibility of a human future.

A graphic-adventure that delves into why we pursue the wild outdoors