Sometimes bad things happen to good people and sometimes dumb things happen to smart people! How could a business man, savvy investor, someone as astute and knowledgeable about finance and all the ins and outs fall prey to the cons and scams you'll read about in this book?

In 1988, forest fires raged in Yellowstone National Park, destroying more than a million acres. As the nation watched the land around Old Faithful burn, a longstanding conflict over fire management reached a fever pitch. Should the U.S. Park and Forest Services suppress fires immediately or allow some to run their natural course? When should firefighters be sent to battle the flames and at what cost? In Scorched Earth, Barker, an environmental reporter who was on the ground and in the smoke during the 1988 fires, shows us that many of today's arguments over fire and the nature of public land began to take shape soon after the Civil War. As Barker explains, how the government responded to early fires in Yellowstone and to private investors in the region led ultimately to the protection of 600 million acres of public lands in the United States. Barker uses his considerable narrative talents to bring to life a fascinating, but often neglected, piece of American history. Scorched Earth lays a new foundation for examining current fire and environmental policies in America and the world. Our story begins when the West was yet to be won, with a colorful cast of characters: a civil war general and his soldiers, America's first investment banker, railroad men, naturalists, and fire-fighters-all of whom left their mark on Yellowstone. As the truth behind the creation of America's first national park is revealed, we discover the remarkable role the U.S. Army played in protecting Yellowstone and shaping public lands in the West. And we see the developing efforts of conservation's great figures as they struggled to preserve our heritage. With vivid descriptions of the famous fires that have raged in Yellowstone, the heroes who have tried to protect it, and the strategies that evolved as a result, Barker draws us into the very heart of a debate over our attempts to control nature and people. This entertaining and timely book challenges the traditional views both of those who arrogantly seek full control of nature and those who naively believe we can leave it unaltered. And it demonstrates how much of our broader environmental history was shaped in the lands of Yellowstone.

"Miller packs a lot of story into this fast-paced novella. A great couple, smartly crafted suspense, and off the charts chemistry--everything I look for in a romantic suspense read!" USA Today Bestselling Author Rachel Grant From USA Today bestselling author Melissa F. Miller comes the first novella in the explosive Shenandoah Shadows series. Strike the match. Light the fuse. Watch Olivia burn. CIA operative Olivia Santos lives on a razor’s edge. As a NOC—an agent with non-official cover—she’s well aware of the risks: if her cover’s blown, there’s no diplomatic immunity, and a life sentence in a foreign prison is the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is too gruesome to mention. But she never imagined her cover would be compromised from the inside. She has no choice but to go on the run—as luck has it—with her musclebound driving instructor. Once upon a time, Trent Mann thrived on danger. Now the former Navy SEAL’s haunted by a costly mistake in his past. He focuses on his work for Potomac Private Services to hold his nightmares at bay. But when he’s saddled with a vapid trophy wife as a defensive driving student, it doesn’t take long for the fiery blonde with the enormous eyes to land them both in deep trouble. Soon Trent and Olivia are on the run from the government, foreign agents, her husband, and an endless list of shadowy enemies. As the danger reaches a boiling point, Olivia and Trent will have to ignore the fire crackling between them to focus on staying alive.

The first major book in a decade by acclaimed American photographer Burk Uzzle.

To effect just outcomes the justice system requires that law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges be committed—above all—to doing justice. Those whose allegiance is to winning, regardless of evidence, do the opposite of justice: they corrupt the system. This is the jaw-dropping story of one such corruption and its surprise ending. On Labor Day 2007, a forest fire broke out in California’s eastern Sierra Nevada and eventually burned about 65,000 acres. Investigators from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the United States Forest Service took a mere two days to conclude that the liable party was the successful forest-products company Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), founded as a tiny sawmill nearly sixty years earlier by Red Emmerson. The investigative report on the fire declared that SPI’s independent logging contractor had started the conflagration by driving a bulldozer over a rock, creating a spark that flew into a pile of brush. No fire had ever been proven to start that way, but based on the report the U.S. Department of Justice and California’s attorney general filed nearly identical suits against Emmerson’s company. The amount sought was nearly a billion dollars, enough to bankrupt or severely damage it. Emmerson, of course, fought back. Week by week, month by month, year by year, his lawyers discovered that the investigators had falsified evidence, lied under oath, fabricated science, invented a narrative, and intentionally ignored a mountain of exculpatory evidence. They never pursued a known arsonist who was in the area that day, nor a young man who repeatedly volunteered alibis contradicted by facts. Though the government lawyers had not known at the start that the investigation was tainted, they nonetheless refused to drop the suits as the discovery process continued and dozens of revelations made clear that any verdict against Emmerson’s company would be unjust. Scorched Worth is a riveting tale that dramatizes how fragile and arbitrary justice can be when those empowered to act in the name of the people are more loyal to the bureaucracies that employ them than to the people they’re supposed to serve. It’s also the story of a man who refused to let the government take from him what he’d spent a lifetime earning.

A remarkably perceptive and vivid life of William Cobbett, one of England's greatest radicals. The early years of the nineteenth century were ones of misery and oppression. The common people were thrown into conditions of extreme poverty by enclosures and the Agricultural Revolution, and the long Tory administration of Lord Liverpool saw its task as keeping law and order at all costs. The cause of reform was a dangerous one, as William Cobbett was to find. Cobbett is best known for his Rural Rides, that classic account of early-nineteenth century Britain which has never been out of print. But he was a much greater figure than that implies, being the foremost satirist and proponent of reform of the time. He had an invincible stomach for provoking the deceit and vanity of the supposedly good and great, and had an abiding hatred of the establishment, or 'The Thing', as he christened it.

When Hitler ordered the north of Nazi-occupied Norway to be destroyed in a scorched earth retreat in 1944, everything of potential use to the Soviet enemy was destroyed. Harbours, bridges and towns were dynamited and every building torched. Fifty thousand people were forcibly evacuated – thousands more fled to hide in caves in sub-zero temperatures. High above the Arctic Circle, the author crosses the region gathering scorched earth stories: of refugees starving on remote islands, fathers shot dead just days before the war ended, grandparents driven mad by relentless bombing, towns burned to the ground. He explores what remains of the Lyngen Line mountain bunkers in the Norwegian Alps, where the Allies feared a last stand by fanatical Nazis – and where starved Soviet prisoners of war too weak to work were dumped in death camps, some driven to cannibalism.With extracts from the Nuremberg trials of the generals who devastated northern Norway and modern reflections on the mental scars that have passed down generations, this is a journey into the heart of a brutal conflict set in a landscape of intense natural beauty.

In The Wood Burn Book, Instagram star Rachel Strauss (@woodburncorner) teaches you everything you’ll need to know to master your favorite new hobby: pyrography, or writing with fire. This essential guide opens with a brief background to the art of wood burning, a list of tools and how to use them, basic techniques that can be used over and over again, and even what to burn and how to be safe doing it. You will also find a detailed explanation of the process from start to finish, with patterns and frames, techniques for lettering and adding color, as well as dozens of projects ready for gifting, including picture frames, cutting boards, coasters, cards, wooden spoons, and jewelry. Above all, Strauss has created the book she wished she had when she first discovered pyrography: a simple guide that quickly gets the reader successfully burning. With the right tools and a little time, you'll be able to create meaningful handmade gifts without breaking the bank. Whether it’s to create a family name sign as a housewarming gift for newlyweds, or customize baby blocks for a new little one, wood burning is the versatile hobby that can be used time and time again to create memorable gifts for all of life’s occasions. In addition, wood burning is a practice in mindfulness, requiring patience and focus to awaken the senses and calm the mind. Mastering the art of writing with fire begins with the ability to follow a line. If you can trace, you can burn.

Join London's hottest martial arts gym now! Every girl needs some self-defense. But at Fit and Physical, you'll learn martial arts and get fit at the same time. Look great, feel better and kick a little butt! Check out one-on-one personal training with our favourite karate black belt, Rosie Miller. She loves her job, the world of martial arts, and her life is just…well, brilliant. Trainer and martial artist Rosie Miller's zen is seriously compromised when Hunter Black—her former coach and lover—becomes her new boss. With all the sexual energy still crackling between them, her poor little zen doesn't stand a chance. So this time, Rosie is determined to do more than put up self-defense. She and Hunter are going to play by her rules….

How much heat can one woman take?Time after time, I've survived impossible odds. When the local paper writes about my firefighting career, I feel like I'm getting the respect I deserve.Except now I'm being dragged from my home by three imposing men.They claim they're dragons and I'm a mythical creature that's able to withstand flames.Say what?But that's not the best part. They need to cause me pain to complete their rituals.The problem is... the more they hurt me, the more I like it.Trapped in a dragon cave, submitted to sensual torture, dominated by three alpha males. I thought I was a survivor... but I'm about to break.How long can I hold onto my innocence?(Scorched by the Dragons is a dark paranormal romance that introduces a new series of reverse harem novels. For mature readers only!)