"Engagingly curious open-mindedness . . . an amiable deadpan worthy of Richard Ford." --Pico Iyer, Timein this offbeat and original road book, cultural observer Mike Bryan takes issue with the traditional idea that the "real" America is to be found somewhere on our scenic backroads. He argues instead that it is right out in the open on the interstates, and he travels the big highways of the Southwest to prove the point.Bryan engages motel operators, state troopers, and trav...

The ultimate inside story of the Katrina tragedy—from the cofounder of the LSU Hurricane CenterAfter warning for years about the looming threat of catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, Ivor van Heerden was one of the highest-profile media experts during the Katrina disaster. Over the following eighteen months, he was even more prominent as he challenged the official version of those events and campaigned for an engineering plan that would protect all of southeaster...

The Romans ruled Britannia for more than 350 years, leaving an indelible mark on our landscape. Town and countryside were transformed by innovations in comfort and culture ‒ albeit shot through with a uniquely British twist ‒ glimpses of which can still be seen at numerous splendid sites and museums in England, Wales and Scotland. Roman Britain and Where to Find It provides the history of the best Roman villas, forts, walls and bathhouses, as well as the hidden gems which the uninitiated m...

There aren't many Americans who didn't feel a lump in their throat watching Cal Ripken, Jr. take a historic jog around the bases on the evening of September 6, 1995—the night he smashed **Lou Gehrig'**s record number of 2,130 consecutively played games. But, as "the hardest working man in baseball" will tell you, he was just doing his job. And now he tells you just how he does it, why he does it, and how it makes him feel.With the candor and grace that have endeare...

John Bookman - Book to his friends - is a tenured professor at the University of Texas School of Law. He's thirty-five, handsome and unmarried. He teaches Constitutional Law, reduces senators to blithering fools on talk shows, and is often mentioned as a future Supreme Court nominee.But Book is also famous for something more unusual. He likes to take on lost causes and win. Consequently, when he arrives at the law school each Monday morning, hundreds of letters await him, letters f...

Reflections on America and the American experience as he has lived and observed it by the bestselling author of The Greatest Generation, whose iconic career in journalism has spanned more than fifty yearsFrom his parents’ life in the Thirties, on to his boyhood along the Missouri River and on the prairies of South Dakota in the Forties, into his early journalism career in the Fifties and the tumultuous Sixties, up to the present, this personal story is a r...

The #1 New York Times–bestselling humorist's tribute to car travel is "a ride worth taking, even for readers who don't know an oil pan from a frying pan" ( The Washington Times).From a veteran of both Car and Driver and National Lampoon magazines, this hilarious book chronicles the golden age of the automobile in America—and takes us on a whirlwind tour of the world's most scenic and bumpiest roads in trouble-laden cross-country...

Over 200 true stories of boneheadedness and buffoonery from the New York Times-bestselling author of Stupid History!Former Saturday Night Live writer Leland Gregory has shown us gray matter-challenged examples in everything from the criminal world to the hallowed halls of government. This time, though, everyone, everywhere is fair game if they've exhibited outrageously stupid behavior. Consider:* The forgetful fireman who left coo...

The bestselling chronicler of human stupidity shares tales of unruly passengers, dumb drivers, and the people who put the "loco" in locomotive . . .New York Times-bestselling author Leland Gregory presents a riotous collection of the unbelievably bizarre events and behavior that result when people strap themselves in for a ride. Gregory, who has so entertainingly highlighted humanity's stupidity in the areas of crime, business, love, politics, and more—now...

Named One of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books Written by the New York Times Magazine, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and a New York Times Editors' Choice.When John D'Agata helps his mother move to Las Vegas one summer, he begins to follow a story about the federal government's plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain; the result is a startling portrait that compels a reexamination of the future of human life.

In the range wars of the twenty-first century, Steven Rinella, host of The Travel Channels The Wild Within, writes, the cattle rustler runs Ponzi schemes and the lawman drives an SUV. Heres what happens when Rinella joins the new posse.

Roaming the country by bus and train, on a budget and without any institutional support, Linh Dinh set out to document, in words and pictures, what life is like for people. From Los Angeles, Cheyenne, Portland, and New Orleans, to Jackson and Wolf Point--Linh walked miles and miles through unfamiliar neighborhoods, talking to whoever would talk to him: the homeless living in tent cities, the peddlers, the protestors, the public preachers, the prostitutes. With the uncompromising eye of a W...