A raucous and surprising novel filled with wonderful details about wine, Rex Pickett's Sideways is also a thought-provoking and funny book about men, women, and human relationships. The basis for the 2004 comedy-drama road movie of the same name starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church. Sideways is the story of two friends-Miles and Jack-going away together for the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: pinot, putting, and prowling bars. In the week before Jack plans to marry, the pair heads out from Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez wine country. For Jack, the tasting tour is Seven Days to D-Day, his final stretch of freedom. For Miles--who has divorced his wife, is facing an uncertain career and has lost his passion for living-the trip is a week long opportunity to evaluate his past, his future and himself.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A breathless read” (USA Today) featuring “some of the most ingenious military-techno twists this side of Tom Clancy” (San Francisco Chronicle). David Elliot is about to have a very bad day at the office. Each morning in his forty-fifth floor executive suite, David savors the quiet moments before the workday begins. Until today, when his boss walks in and aims a gun at him, murder glinting in his eye. For the rest of the day, David will be trapped in a midtown tower with a team of ruthless and professional mercenaries. Everyone he meets—and knows—will try to kill him. They expect him to be dead by lunchtime. But they’re wrong. This is the “killer” workday redefined, a high-stakes and whiplash-paced drama that plays out with an electrifying intensity. You’ll never see the office the same way again.

WINNER OF THE BOARDMAN TASKER PRIZE 2008 Metro magazine recently wrote that Andy Kirkpatrick makes Ray Mears look like Paris Hilton. Words like boldness, adventure and risk were surely coined especially for him. As one of the world's most accomplished mountaineers and big-wall climbers, he goes vertically where other climbers (to say nothing of the general public) fear to tread. For the first time, this cult hero of vertical rock has written a book, in which his thirteen-day ascent of Reticent Wall on El Capitan in California - the hardest big-wall climb ever soloed by a Briton - frames a challenging autobiography. From childhood on a grim inner-city housing estate in Hull, the story moves through horrific encounters and unique athletic achievements at the extremes of the earth. As he writes, 'Climbs like this make no sense ... the chances of dying on the route are high.' Yet Andy, in his thirties with young children, has everything to live for. This is the paradox at the heart of the story. This book - by turns gut-wrenching, entertaining and challenging - appeals to the adventurer in all of us.

The bold graphic illustrations and bright colors of Mister Horizontal & Miss Vertical will have tremendous, immediate appeal for children.

In Vertical Mind, Don McGrath and Jeff Elison teach rock climbers how to improve their mental game so they can climb better and have more fun. They teach how the latest research in brain science and psychology can help you retrain your mind and body for higher levels of rock climbing performance, while also demonstrating how to train and overcome fears and anxiety that hold you back. Finally, they teach climbing partners how to engage in co-creative coaching and help each other improve as climbers.With numerous and practical step-by-step drills and exercises, in a simple to follow training framework, your path to harder climbing has never been clearer. If you are a climber who wants to climb harder and have more fun climbing, then Vertical Mind is required reading. Well, what's stopping you? Pick it up and get training today!

Few things suggest rugged individualism as powerfully as the solitary mountaineer testing his or her mettle in the rough country. Yet the long history of wilderness sport complicates this image. In this surprising story of the premier rock-climbing venue in the United States, Pilgrims of the Vertical offers insight into the nature of wilderness adventure. From the founding era of mountain climbing in Victorian Europe to present-day climbing gyms, Pilgrims of the Vertical shows how ever-changing alignments of nature, technology, gender, sport, and consumer culture have shaped climbers’ relations to nature and to each other. Even in Yosemite Valley, a premier site for sporting and environmental culture since the 1800s, elite athletes cannot be entirely disentangled from the many men and women seeking recreation and camaraderie. Following these climbers through time, Joseph Taylor uncovers lessons about the relationship of individuals to groups, sport to society, and nature to culture. He also shows how social and historical contexts influenced adventurers’ choices and experiences, and why some became leading environmental activists—including John Muir, David Brower, and Yvon Chouinard. In a world in which wild nature is increasingly associated with play, and virtuous play with environmental values, Pilgrims of the Vertical explains when and how these ideas developed, and why they became intimately linked to consumerism.

Vertical gardening is the process of gardening that is done vertically or upward. While the traditional gardening process is gardening with plots on the ground, vertical gardening is a different approach to gardening as it aims to plant crops in a vertical position or standing position. This can either be done through hanging plots or with frameworks as long as plants are not planted on the ground like in traditional gardening. There are several advantages of vertical gardening. One, vertical gardening is a great space saver. Since your garden is positioned vertically, it does not take up too much space in your backyard, giving room to more plants to be planted. Two, vertical gardening is a very flexible type of gardening because it allows you to plant or to build a garden even in an area with limited space. For instance, if you are only gardening on your rooftop or you only a have a very small backyard, it is possible for you to plant many crops through vertical gardening even with that limited space you have. If you want to build a vertical garden, there are several things you need to be aware of. First, you need to how to know how to build one, you need to know how to prepare the soil for a vertical garden, you need to know how to maintain your vertical garden, and you need to know how to control pests and keep them from destroying your plants. This way, the time, money and effort you invested in building this garden won't be in vain. This book will discuss and reveal some of these helpful vertical gardening tips you need.