A colorful memoir recalls the author's journey of discovery back to his West Virginia roots, detailing his midlife odyssey to the region of his birth to recount the family stories, local legends and lore, colorful celebrations, oddball characters, and rich history of the region.

A poetic description of various kinds of mountains and how they are formed. Includes factual information on mountains.

He is a sergeant-major in the SAS. His task is to snatch a defecting Russian 'Star Wars' scientist from Stockholm. She is the she-wolf. Leader of a crack Spetsnaz pack. Her task is to get the scientist back. Dead or alive. Their paths have crossed before. Now the score has to be settled. In between is the scientist, ruthlessly manipulated by both sides, torn between loyalty to his country and the love of a woman. That Last Mountain is a story of sweeping passion and betrayal, of endurance and breathtaking action in the Scandinavian mountains - the toughest terrain on earth.

DIVDIVIn the second book of Caroline B. Cooney’s bestselling Night to Remember series, five high school juniors get ready for the most important night of their lives—a dance that will bring happiness . . . or heartbreak/divDIV For Kip, Anne, Beth Rose, Emily, and Molly, it’s the perfect end to their junior year. The night they’ve been waiting for—a night to wish upon a star./divDIV Kip just got the ultimate kiss-off: Her boyfriend, Mike, suddenly wants to be “just friends.”/divDIV At the start of junior year, Anne and Conrad were Westerly High’s most popular couple. Now everything’s different, and Anne wonders if the whole school knows her secret./divDIV Beth Rose was a perennial wallflower before she met Gary. She’s crazy about him, but he’s never once said the L-word./divDIV Emily’s life just fell apart, and all she wants is for Matt to make the pain go away./divDIV Molly’s furious that Con is taking Anne to the dance when she knows he really loves her. She’s about to plot the perfect revenge . . ./divDIV For five very different girls, it’s a dance they’ll always remember. Will it be a night of love—or loneliness? An ending—or a new beginning?/divDIV/div/div

We were going down the road, and we came to this house. There was a little boy standing by the road just crying and crying. We stopped, and we heard the biggest racket you ever heard up in the house. “What’s the matter, son?” “Why, Maw and Paw are up there fightin’.” “Who is your Paw, son?” “Well, that’s what they are fightin’ over.” Brimming with ballads, stories, riddles, tall tales, and great good humor, My Curious and Jocular Heroes pays homage to four people who guided and inspired Loyal Jones’s own study of Appalachian culture. His sharp-eyed portraits introduce a new generation to Bascom Lunsford, the pioneer behind the “memory collections” of song and story at Columbia University and the Library of Congress; the Sorbonne-educated collector and performer Josiah H. Combs; Cratis D. Williams, the legendary father of Appalachian studies; and the folklorist and master storyteller Leonard W. Roberts. Throughout, Jones highlights the tales, songs, jokes, and other collected nuggets that define the breadth of each man’s research and repertoire.

Her aunt was a nun who popped pills and did time in Narcotics Anonymous. Her father grew up during the Depression, believed he'd be the next Frank Sinatra, and ended up working in the mills. His daughter, Lori Jakiela, spent her suburban Pittsburgh childhood watching Marlo Thomas in That Girl and dreaming of New York City.Instead, she got bad talent shows, a Junior Miss contest, and college in Erie, PA, where the big attraction was chicken wings. But years later, her Big Apple dreams were still going strong. With her twenties becoming a distant memory, Jakiela answered an airline ad promising a NYC home base, high-flying glamour, and three-day layovers in Paris. The reality was a roach-filled apartment in Queens, a polyester uniform cut like a sack, and a life that wasn't quite what she imagined.