The importance of the stagecoach is often overlooked amidst its romance and legend. It was, in fact, Arizona's first, and for a long while only means of public transportation. If you wanted to travel to or within the Territory in the early days, you had better own a horse or a horse and buggy, or be willing to do a lot of walking. With the advent of stage travel in the late 1860s, all that changed, at least for those well enough off to pay the stagecoach fare. Catch the Stage to Phoenix covers the history of stage-coaching in the early days of the Arizona Territory. Stages traveled from Prescott to Phoenix first via Wickenburg and later through the Black Canyon. The drivers, stage station operators and the travelers, as well, deserve medals for their fortitude and bravery.

25 years ago two lovers ran from an angry prince. They washed up on an island, where they were blessed by a golden phoenix feather. Their children vowed to keep the secret, but children must follow their own paths . . .

David has no greater wish than to explore the mountains behind his new home in North Carolina and as he does he finds a wonder never dreamed of, the Phoenix. The Phoenix introduces David to an endless list of his friends from mythology and in the process opens David's eyes to the wide world both the unseen world and seen world. In the unseen world David and the Phoenix share many adventures all the while a scientist is trying to capture the Phoenix to prove to the world that the bird is real. The phoenix takes David on "educational field trips" to meet sea monsters, fauns and other creatures. Plus they hatch a hysterical plot to scare off an over eager scientist from the phoenix's trail. David learns some valuable lessons about life, one is that nothing remains the same as one grows up. The other is... well perhaps you should read the book yourself and find your own lessons within the pages. A well written story, "David and the Phoenix" has no particular time setting so that it could very well be placed in current time. It brings back to me memories of times when life was much simpler, more pleasant and without the problems we as adults face. It's a story of childhood and the dreams that children of every age share and which we all to soon leave behind. Of course, there is the traditional fiery death of the phoenix in the story.

Five British children discover in their new carpet an egg, which hatches into a phoenix that takes them on a series of fantastic adventures around the world.

Howard and Ivy return for a third adventure! This time, the drama’s backstage when someone sets out to sabotage the school play . . . and frame Howard. “I wasn’t taking the fall for this. You couldn’t force a guy into a job and then blame him when it all went sideways.” Spring (musical) fever has hit the Grantleyville Middle School Drama Club! Since Ivy Mason is busy with the production, she decides to take a break from sleuthing, while Howard Wallace keeps things running smoothly with their detective agency. Then, just a few weeks before showtime, suspicious things start happening backstage: missing costumes, damaged props, and too many other mishaps to be coincidental. Ivy calls in Howard and their crew to take on the case. Howard tries to lay low and quietly sniff out the perp, but he’s soon brought into the spotlight when he’s framed as the saboteur! Can the team of intrepid P.I.s clear Howard’s name and catch the culprit before the curtain falls on the big show?

Set in the future when "firemen" burn books forbidden by the totalitarian "brave new world" regime.

Deadly awakening When robotics expert Megan O'Flannery is offered the chance to direct MindSim's cutting-edge program to develop a self-aware android, it's the opportunity of a lifetime. But the project is trouble plagued--the third prototype "killed" itself, and the RS-4 is unstable. Megan will descend into MindSim's underground research lab in the Nevada desert, where she will be the sole human in contact with the RS-4, dubbed Aris. Programmed as part of a top-secret defense project, the awakening Aris quickly proves to be deviously resourceful and basically uncontrollable. When Megan enlists the help of Raj Sundaram, the quirky, internationally renowned robotics genius, the android develops a jealous hostility toward Raj--and a fixation on Megan. But soon she comes to realize that Raj may be an even greater danger--and that her life may depend on the choice she makes between the man she wants to trust and the android she created.

“It was the first time I’d seen what the ocean may have looked like thousands of years ago.” That’s conservation scientist Gregory S. Stone talking about his initial dive among the corals and sea life surrounding the Phoenix Islands in the South Pacific. Worldwide, the oceans are suffering. Corals are dying off at an alarming rate, victims of ocean warming and acidification—and their loss threatens more than 25 percent of all fish species, who depend on the food and shelter found in coral habitats. Yet in the waters off the Phoenix Islands, the corals were healthy, the fish populations pristine and abundant—and Stone and his companion on the dive, coral expert David Obura, determined that they were going to try their best to keep it that way. Underwater Eden tells the story of how they succeeded, against great odds, in making that dream come true, with the establishment in 2008 of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA). It’s a story of cutting-edge science, fierce commitment, and innovative partnerships rooted in a determination to find common ground among conservationists, business interests, and governments—all backed up by hard-headed economic analysis. Creating the world’s largest (and deepest) UNESCO World Heritage Site was by no means easy or straightforward. Underwater Eden takes us from the initial dive, through four major scientific expeditions and planning meetings over the course of a decade, to high-level negotiations with the government of Kiribati—a small island nation dependent on the revenue from the surrounding fisheries. How could the people of Kiribati, and the fishing industry its waters supported, be compensated for the substantial income they would be giving up in favor of posterity? And how could this previously little-known wilderness be transformed into one of the highest-profile international conservation priorities? Step by step, conservation and its priorities won over the doubters, and Underwater Eden is the stunningly illustrated record of what was saved. Each chapter reveals—with eye-popping photographs—a different aspect of the science and conservation of the underwater and terrestrial life found in and around the Phoenix Islands’ coral reefs. Written by scientists, politicians, and journalists who have been involved in the conservation efforts since the beginning, the chapters brim with excitement, wonder, and confidence—tempered with realism and full of lessons that the success of PIPA offers for other ambitious conservation projects worldwide. Simultaneously a valentine to the diversity, resilience, and importance of the oceans and a riveting account of how conservation really can succeed against the toughest obstacles, Underwater Eden is sure to enchant any ocean lover, whether ecotourist or armchair scuba diver.

A fireman in charge of burning books meets a revolutionary school teacher who dares to read. Depicts a future world in which all printed reading material is burned.

This book is a collection of short stories, 12 are adventure stories, and the rest are a mixture of westerns,sifi,love,dark humor,spy,ghost and even a fairy tale. I do hope that you, as a reader will fi nd what you are looking for.