From its beginnings as a trickle of icy water in Virginia's northwest corner to its miles-wide mouth at Hampton Roads, the James River has witnessed more recorded history than any other feature of the American landscape -- as home to the continent's first successful English settlement, highway for Native Americans and early colonists, battleground in the Revolution and the Civil War, and birthplace of America's twentieth-century navy. In 1998, restless in his job as a reporter for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Earl Swift landed an assignment traveling the entire length of the James. He hadn't been in a canoe since his days as a Boy Scout, and he knew that the river boasts whitewater, not to mention man-made obstacles, to challenge even experienced paddlers. But reinforced by Pilot photographer Ian Martin and a lot of freeze-dried food and beer, Swift set out to immerse himself -- he hoped not literally -- in the river and its history. What Swift survived to bring us is this engrossing chronicle of three weeks in a fourteen-foot plastic canoe and four hundred years in the life of Virginia. Fueled by humor and a dauntless curiosity about the land, buildings, and people on the banks, and anchored by his sidekick Martin -- whose photographs accompany the text -- Swift points his bow through the ghosts of a frontier past, past Confederate forts and POW camps, antebellum mills, ruined canals, vanished towns, and effluent-spewing industry. Along the banks, lonely meadowlands alternate with suburbs and power plants, marinas and the gleaming skyscrapers of Richmond's New South downtown. Enduring dunkings, wolf spiders, near-arrest, channel fever, and twenty-knot winds, Swift makes it to the Chesapeake Bay. Readers who accompany him through his Journey on the James will come away with the accumulated pleasure, if not the bruises and mud, of four hundred miles of adventure and history in the life of one of America's great watersheds.

This is the classic account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914-1916 Antarctic expedition. Written by the captain of the Endurance, the ship used by Shackleton on this ill-fated journey, it is a remarkable tale of courage and bravery in the face of extreme odds and a vivid portrait of one of the world's greatest explorers. "A breathtaking story of courage under the most appalling conditions." - Edmund Hillary

Adventure, shipwreck, storms and survival on the high seas. ENDURANCE is the story of one of the most astonishing feats of exploration and human courage ever recorded. In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men set sail for the South Atlantic on board a ship called the Endurance. The object of the expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland. In October 1915, still half a continent away from their intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in ice. For five months Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways on one of the most savage regions of the world. This utterly gripping book, based on first-hand accounts of crew members and interviews with survivors, describes how the men survived, how they lived together in camps on the ice for 17 months until they reached land, how they were attacked by sea leopards, the diseases which they developed, and the indefatigability of the men and their lasting civility towards one another in the most adverse conditions conceivable.

A street poll of 100 people in New York City found only seven who had heard of the James River, and three who placed it correctly in the state of Virginia. This is less an ignorance than an example of historical memory loss. The James was at the center of English-speaking American activity for 200 years. The British put their first settlement on its shore, patriots use it to create a new nation, and the remarkable waterway served centrally in the preservation of that nation. It may today be all but forgotten, but that does not diminish its historic importance to the country and the world. Forget the Pilgrims and Massachusetts Bay; English America was created on Virginia's James River.

The book of James is different from other New Testament books. It is not about the life of Christ or history of the church; it is not a prediction of what will happen; it is not high-minded theology. The book of James is a book about wisdom, offering readers practical advice about living a life that glorifies God. Pursue godly wisdom and be inspired to live wholly for Jesus by embarking on a journey through the book of James. The Journey Through series from Our Daily Bread Ministries provides assistance to those who desire to spend time with God in His Word, book by book. Perfect for personal devotions.

Something marvelous happens to us when we spend time alone with God, fully dependant on the care of the Father. There must have been something extraordinary awaiting Jesus, however the world of a forty day fast is something hidden to most people. This glimpse of what might have taken place, is written on the foundation of personally experiencing 17 forty day fasts.