Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln were the preeminent self-made men of their time. In this masterful dual biography, award-winning Harvard University scholar John Stauffer describes the transformations in the lives of these two giants during a major shift in cultural history, when men rejected the status quo and embraced new ideals of personal liberty. As Douglass and Lincoln reinvented themselves and ultimately became friends, they transformed America. Lincoln was born dirt poor, had less than one year of formal schooling, and became the nation's greatest president. Douglass spent the first twenty years of his life as a slave, had no formal schooling-in fact, his masters forbade him to read or write-and became one of the nation's greatest writers and activists, as well as a spellbinding orator and messenger of audacious hope, the pioneer who blazed the path traveled by future African-American leaders. At a time when most whites would not let a black man cross their threshold, Lincoln invited Douglass into the White House. Lincoln recognized that he needed Douglass to help him destroy the Confederacy and preserve the Union; Douglass realized that Lincoln's shrewd sense of public opinion would serve his own goal of freeing the nation's blacks. Their relationship shifted in response to the country's debate over slavery, abolition, and emancipation. Both were ambitious men. They had great faith in the moral and technological progress of their nation. And they were not always consistent in their views. John Stauffer describes their personal and political struggles with a keen understanding of the dilemmas Douglass and Lincoln confronted and the social context in which they occurred. What emerges is a brilliant portrait of how two of America's greatest leaders lived.

A mammoth compilation of 1000 sonnets by Abhijit Naskar, the Humanitarian Scientist, who has been serving at the forefront of humankind’s struggle against hate, intolerance and fanaticism.

De Laet recounts growing up as the daughter of the N.F.L. quarterback.

The ugly head pivoted on its long neck. Its eyes bulged, its jaw dropped open, and then the snake-like coils appeared... With another summer ahead of her, Vanessa joins her dad's girlfriend, Lee, on a trip to a remote island off the coast of Canada. Lee's investigating the disappearance of whales in the area. Vanessa hopes to spot a few whales herself. But she doesn't expect to encounter a very different kind of water creature?one that the locals don't like to talk about. Without her mom's cryptid files to help her, can Vanessa identify this strange beast? Mysterious sea serpents aren't the only secret on this island, though. Vanessa soon finds herself drawn into a world of ruthless whale hunters. To expose their crimes, she'll have to risk her life?and come face-to-face with the monster that roams this corner of the Pacific.

Invisible Giants is about leadership, choices in life and the potential in everyone to make a difference. Lindsay Levin, who founded the social enterprise Leaders' Quest, tells the stories of the remarkable people she has met, and their impact on the world. They are individuals who have overcome a lack of education and resources to re-energise their communities, and business leaders who strive to integrate purpose alongside profit. They are female activists in slums campaigning to end the exclusion of girls from school, and environmentalists tackling the effects of industrialisation on the world's ecosystem. They are the people we meet every day, who are revisiting their life choices. It's also the story of Lindsay's own quest to ask: "what really matters?" and to figure out where the answers can take her.

Every year, the race to grow the biggest pumpkin in the world draws a rowdy crowd of obsessive gardeners to county fairs and weigh-offs across the country. The competition is furious; there's sabotage and treachery and the heartbreak of root rot, and many a weigh-off ends in tears. This year, more than just the grand prize is at stake. The Holy Grail is within reach: the world's first fifteenhundred-pound pumpkin. And Ron and Dick Wallace think they have what it takes to get it. Backyard Giants follows a tumultuous season in the life of a close-knit tribe of competitors as they chase down the ultimate pumpkin prize. In the grueling and gut-wrenching quest for truly colossal fruit, vacations are postponed, marriages are strained, and savings accounts are emptied. Backyards are converted into leafy laboratories of biogenetics and toxic chemicals-to say nothing of pumpkin sex. Riding shotgun with Ron and his father Dick, Wall Street Journal editor Susan Warren brings to life a winning and unforgettable crew of pumpkin lunatics: the newbie who shocked everyone by growing the big one last year; the pro-bono slime scientist; the groundhog assassin; and the safety trainer who risked electrocuting himself to save his patch. Funny, sharp, and engaging, Backyard Giants is a romp through a charming corner of American life, as quirky and enchanting as the big pumpkins themselves.

No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter what your age, nine giants seek you out daily. Join a teenager trying to make the transition between boyhood and manhood. With the help of a kind shopkeeper, a strange compass, and a deep faith, he finds himself in mortal combat in the biggest adventure he has ever known. Welcome to Repahim, the Valley of the Giants!

Eleven-year-old Rory, daughter of a famous actress and a famous movie director, finds herself becoming a celebrity in her own right as she helps create a new fairy tale as a participant in the after-school program, Ever After School.

Red giant and supergiant stars have long been favorites of professional 6 and amateur astronomers. These enormous stars emit up to 10 times more energy than the Sun and, so, are easy to study. Some of them, specifically the pulsating long-period variables, significantly change their size, brightness, and color within about a year, a time scale of interest to a single human being. Some aspects of the study of red giant stars are similar to the study of pre-main-sequence stars. For example, optical astronomy gives us a tantalizing glimpse of star forming regions but to really investi gate young stars and protostars requires infrared and radio astronomy. The same is true of post-main-sequence stars that are losing mass. Optical astronomers can measure the atomic component of winds from red giant stars that are undergoing mass loss at modest rates 6 (M $ 10- M9/yr.). But to see dust grains and molecules properly, 5 especially in stars with truly large mass loss rates, ~ 10- M9/yr, one requires IR and radio astronomy. As this stage of copious mass loss only lasts for ~105 years one might be tempted to ask, "who cares?".

When Jumbeelia, an eight-year-old giant, climbs down a beanstalk and collects some "iggly plops, " the little people of children's stories, she treats them like toys, unaware that she is endangering their lives.