Boats on Land is a unique way of looking at India’s northeast and its people against a larger historical canvas—the early days of the British Raj, the World Wars, conversions to Christianity, and the missionaries. This is a world in which the everyday is infused with folklore and a deep belief in the supernatural. Here, a girl dreams of being a firebird. An artist watches souls turn into trees. A man shape-shifts into a tiger. Another is bewitched by water fairies. Political struggles and social unrest interweave with fireside tales and age-old superstitions. Boats on Land quietly captures our fragile and awkward place in the world.

In any given year, the Louisiana crawfish harvest tops 50,000 tons. The Amazing Crawfish Boat chronicles the development of an amphibious boat that transformed the Louisiana prairies into alternating fields of aquaculture and agriculture. In seeking to understand how such a machine came into being, John Laudun describes the ideas and traditions that have long been a part of the Louisiana landscape and how they converged at a particular moment in time to create a new economic opportunity for both the rice farmers who used them and the fabricators who made them. Walking fields with farmers and working in shops with fabricators, Laudun gives readers a rich portrait of the Louisiana prairies and the people who live and work on them. The Amazing Crawfish Boat seeks to unearth the complex mix of folk cultures that underlie a variety of traditions that are now seen as native to an area populated not just by Cajuns but also by Germans and other groups. Over the years, this diverse mix of cultures has produced an astonishing set of artifacts that demonstrate not only their ability to adapt, but their ability to innovate, and the crawfish boat is a great example of such creativity produced by individuals deeply embedded in their culture and place. While the lives of artists and scientists have been examined for what they tell us about innovation, The Amazing Crawfish Boat seeks to address creativity as part of a larger cultural complex of ideas and behaviors. To ascertain this inventiveness, Laudun examines the historical and cultural trends that led to this creation, drawing from archives, oral histories, and ethnographic accounts. He investigates the shops and sheds where farmers and fabricators work, revealing the immense imagination and intelligence that lie behind the bolts, welds, and hydraulic lines that hold the boats together and, in so doing, hold a way of life together.

This revolutionary synthesis dispels the stereotype of big game hunters following mammoths across the Bering Land Bridge, while painting a vivid picture of marine mammal hunters, fishers, and general foragers colonizing the New World.

What Nacky Patcher and Teedie Flinn discover in the owl light and blackberry water of Yole Lake causes them to suspect they are losing their wits. Polished wood as far as the eye can see—an entire ship comes unbuttoned! Yet they see something else, too, something far more important: a way out from the curse that has burdened the poor folks of Yole for generations. But first, they will need the villagers to do something they haven’t done in a long time: work as a team. Jeffrey Kluger, co-author of the blockbuster book-turned-film Apollo 13, delivers one of the finest, quirkiest, and most emotionally satisfying reads of the year. As they rise to the challenge of something greater than themselves, this cast of characters will capture readers’ hearts and imaginations.

The Silver Boat is a magical, beautifully illustrated fairy tale that will delight children of all ages. It describes a journey that all of us must take in order to leave our pain behind and reach the healing place of the warm and sunny land.

Artists who love the sea and dream of capturing every aspect of its beauty will treasure this lavishly illustrated guide to painting boats, skies, and picturesque harbors. Written by an award-winning artist and teacher with decades of experience in the genre, this step-by-step guide covers every topic from art materials and equipment through composition and painting techniques. Seasoned artists and novices alike will appreciate the author's simple, yet authoritative style. In clear, nontechnical language, he discusses the structure of boats, offers advice on choosing a subject to paint, and shows how to avoid the pitfalls that can await painters of the sea. On its own, or as a companion volume to Ballinger's Painting Surf and Sea, this volume will inspire any artist with the desire to produce beautiful seascapes. Includes eighty-five black-and-white illustrations and an eight-page insert with nine color illustrations.

A boat is a hole in the water that you put your passion into. Movable homes provide endless opportunities for exploration and changes of scenery. Modified ferries allow ample space for families. Shanty boats inspire images of Huck Finn's literary journey and youthful spirit. Former cruise ships become charming hotels. These floating domiciles showcase alternative living solutions from the private to the commercial. From the romantic lakes of Kashmir to the Bay of Venice, houseboats claim their space atop the water worldwide. These charismatic and aquatic homes provide refuge from being landlocked and promise to satisfy curious natures. A Life Afloat profiles the imaginative inhabitants and designers behind these houseboats; the volume offers inspiration to anyone interested in a touch of escape from a weekend change of scenery to a permanent change of address.

"Using historic photos, river logs, letters and interviews, author Tom Marin recounts the voyages of a number of unsung river runners during the transformation from Grand Canyon expeditionary river running into today's whitewater recreation" -- Cover, p. [4].

Fifty years ago--on April 26, 1956--the freighter Ideal X steamed from Berth 26 in Port Newark, New Jersey. Flying the flag of the Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company, she set out for Houston with an unusual cargo: 58 trailer trucks lashed to her top deck. But they weren't trucks--they were steel containers removed from their running gear, waiting to be lifted onto empty truck beds when Ideal X reached Texas. She docked safely, and a revolution was launched--not only in shipping, but in the way the world trades. Today, the more than 200 million containers shipped every year are the lifeblood of the new global economy. They sit stacked on thousands of "box boats" that grow more massive every year. In this fascinating book, transportation expert Brian Cudahy provides a vivid, fast-paced account of the container-ship revolution--from the maiden voyage of the Ideal X to the entrepreneurial vision and technological breakthroughs that make it possible to ship more goods more cheaply than every before. Cudahy tells this complex story easily, starting with Malcom McLean, Pan-Atlantic's owner who first thought about loading his trucks on board. His line grew into the container giant Sea-Land Services, and Cudahy charts its dramatic evolution into Maersk Sealand, the largest container line in the world. Along the way, he provides a concise, colorful history of world shipping--from freighter types to the fortunes of steamship lines--and explores the spectacular growth of global trade fueled by the mammoth ships and new seaborne lifelines connecting Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Masterful maritime history, Box Boats shows how fleets of these ungainly ships make the modern world possible--with both positive and negative effects. It's also a tale of an historic home port, New York, where old piers lie silent while 40-foot steel boxes of toys and televisions come ashore by the thousands, across the bay in New Jersey.