New tales of humanity's near-future exploration of the Solar System, from a science fiction master and award-winning author Ben Bova In novels like Mars and Moonbase, and Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, as well as Privateers, The Precipice, and The Rock Rats, Ben Bova has been telling the stories of the wars and rivalries, the outsize individuals, public crusades, and private passions that will drive us as we expand into the Solar System and make use of its vast resources. And throughout, Bova has shown our cosmic neighborhood as we know it to be, giving us a sense of Venus and Jupiter and the Asteroid Belt and Mars that's as up-to-date as the latest observations. For the last two decades have been a golden age of near-Earth astronomy and observation, and in his novels Bova has made dramatic use of our newest knowledge. But during that time Bova has also written short fiction about some of the same events and characters---Sam Gunn, Martin Humphries, Klaus Fuchs, Dan Randolph, the Asteroid Wars. Now, in Tales of the Grand Tour, those stories are collected in book form for the first time, creating a volume that is a landmark of modern SF. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Foreword by Norman R. Augustine In 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 journeyed to the outer planets, gathering information about Jupiter and Saturn, sending scientists on Earth their first close-up photographs of Uranus and Neptune, and collecting a series of images of the sun and its planets. Twenty years later, Voyager Tales presents a collection of interviews from a cross section of the professionals involved in all aspects of the mission. Voyager Tales: Personal Views of the Grand Tour provides insights into the development of a major research project from the personal perspectives of the people who helped design, build, and fly the two spacecraft. Readers will use this book as a case study of a project that not only was highly successful, operating on time and on budget, but far surpassed its initial goals.

In the vein of the classic Johnny Cash: The Life, this groundbreaking work explores the wild life and extraordinary musical career of “the definitive country singer of the last half century” (New York Times), who influenced, among others, Bob Dylan, Buck Owens, Emmylou Harris, John Fogerty, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks. In a masterful biography laden with new revelations, veteran country music journalist/historian Rich Kienzle offers a definitive, full-bodied portrait of legendary country singer George Jones and the music that remains his legacy. Kienzle meticulously sifted through archival material, government records, recollections by colleagues and admirers, interviewing many involved in Jones’s life and career. The result: an evocative portrait of this enormously gifted, tragically tormented icon called “the Keith Richards of country.” Kienzle chronicles Jones’s impoverished East Texas childhood as the youngest son of a deeply religious mother and alcoholic, often-abusive father. He examines his three troubled marriages including his union with superstar Tammy Wynette and looks unsparingly at Jones’s demons. Alcohol and later cocaine nearly killed him until fourth wife Nancy helped him learn to love himself. Kienzle also details Jones’s remarkable musical journey from singing in violent Texas honky tonks to Grand Ole Opry star, hitmaker and master vocalist whose raw, emotionally powerful delivery remains the Gold Standard for country singers. The George Jones of this heartfelt biography lived hard before finding contentment until he died at eighty-one—a story filled with whiskey, women and drugs but always the saving grace of music. Illustrated with eight pages of photos.

Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. In this fascinating travelogue of the prolific author's yearlong trip around the British Empire in 1922, Christie provides the clues to the origins of the plots and locales of some of her bestselling mystery novels. Containing never-before-published letters and photos from her travels, and filled with intriguing details about the exotic locations she visited, The Grand Tour is a must-have for Agatha Christie fans, revealing an unexpected side to the world's most renowned mystery writer. In 1922 Agatha Christie set sail on a ten-month voyage around the world. Her husband, Archibald Christie, had been invited to join a trade mission to promote the British Empire Exhibition, and Christie was determined to go with him. It was a life-changing decision for the young novelist, a true voyage of discovery that would inspire her future writing for years to come. Placing her two-year-old daughter in the care of her sister, Christie set sail at the end of January and did not return home until December. Throughout her journey, she kept up a detailed weekly correspondence with her mother, describing the exotic places and the remarkable people she encountered as the mission traveled through South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Canada. Reproduced here for the first time, the letters are full of tales of seasickness and sunburn, motor trips and surfboarding, glamor and misery. The Grand Tour also brings to life the places and people Christie encountered through the photos she took on her portable camera, as well as some of the original postcards, newspaper cuttings, and memorabilia she collected on her trip. Edited and introduced by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, and accompanied by reminiscences from her own autobiography, this unique travelogue reveals a new adventurous side to Agatha Christie, one that would ultimately influence the stories that made her a household name.

It all begins with one hot night in Paris… The Honorable Miss Dorothy McGovern is in dire straits. Along with her brother, Damien, as children of the youngest son of a huge, aristocratic family, she has only her connections to her name, and what little money she inherited is running out. In a last-ditch effort to save themselves from ruin, she and Damien have joined the rest of the McGovern cousins on a grand tour. First stop, Paris. Lord Marshall Stone, the brand-new Duke of Reith, has fled to Paris to visit his disgraced brother and to drown his grief over his father’s death in parties and female company. His reputation is going downhill fast, and he has no wish to save it. He even goes so far as to seduce a woman he thinks is the pretty companion of one of his friends. Except, the woman he seduces turns out to be his friend’s cousin and a noblewoman in her own right. One he can’t stop thinking about or wanting. To make matters worse, a mysterious figure begins sending threats that could destroy both Marshall and Dorothy and put the entire McGovern family in danger. The unlikely lovers must work together to figure out who is blackmailing them and to save the entire family from social ruin. TALES FROM THE GRAND TOUR is a steamy, light-hearted Victorian series, set in the 1890s, that follows the wild, unconventional, often scandalous McGovern cousins as they make their way through Europe and beyond. PLEASE BE ADVISED – Steam Level: Five-Alarm Fire with a few F-bombs. Don’t say you weren’t warned. Tales from the Grand Tour: THE DUKE OF PARIS RENDEZVOUS IN PARIS LAST CHANCE FOR PARIS TUSCAN SUNRISE VENETIAN SUNSHINE ROMAN SUNSET

"Her letters and recollections are complemented by numerous photographs and several original watercolor paintings. By words and pictures, Lizzie Coxe's Tales from the Grand Tour reveal the turn-of-the-century excitement about the burgeoning field of Egyptology, the intellectual pursuits available to women of means, and the familial and social ties between the upper classes of the North and South, that predated and survived the Civil War."--Jacket.

Awarded the prestigious Institute of Historical Research Prize, Ridley's sparkling history brings vividly to life the tragicomic story of a rhinoceros named Clara who became a star in 18th century Europe.