True Live Histories

What if your job required stealing corpses, crawling into sewers, collecting leeches with your own legs, or waking strangers by shooting peas at their windows? Welcome to Strange But True: The Weird History of Jobs, Volume 1, a funny, fascinating journey through the bizarre ways people once earned a living. Before alarm clocks, someone had to wake the workers. Before modern sewers, someone had to climb into the waste pit. Before refrigeration, crews literally cut lakes into giant blocks and stored winter for summer. Before electronic computers, companies hired actual people called computers...

What if your job involved treating plague victims, tasting a king’s dinner for poison, chasing birds from a field, running a lighthouse during a hurricane, or lowering yourself into the ocean inside a giant upside-down cup? Welcome back to Strange But True: The Weird History of Jobs, Volume 2, another funny, fascinating journey through the bizarre ways people once earned a living. History’s strangest occupations were usually created for a very practical reason: somebody had a problem, and somebody else figured out how to get paid for solving it. Plague spreading through town? Hire a ...

A generation today is asking, where are all god's miracles that our fathers told us about? From 1960-1966, author Tommy Welchel answered this question, living among the youth of one of the greatest spiritual outpourings ever experienced - the Azusa Street Revival. During this time, Tommy recorded first-hand accounts of the miracles that they had witnessed - and even performed themselves!

A Russian Drama best seller now in its second edition! In February, 1959 nine young hikers on a cross country ski trip mysteriously died under horrific circumstances. It is one of the great mysteries of our times. They would be found with missing eyes, even a missing tongue, crushed bones, and stripped of their clothes (later found radioactive) in minus 50 degree temperatures. Theories range from their being murdered by the CIA to space aliens, to even "Abominable Snowmen". This book explores this famous incident using a technique known as "Higher criticism" to explain their terrifying ...

‘Quest in the Caribbean’ is the final book in the Quest Series. Wendy and I have learned to become sailors. We thank our lucky stars every day that the sea has been merciful to us. The sea is our home, but it can also be a strict master and unforgiving teacher. We learn our lessons one day and one problem at a time. But more importantly, Wendy and I learn a great deal about each other and what it takes to be good companions on a tiny boat. Compatibility on a cruising boat is the irreplaceable ingredient that keeps the cruise alive. The first chapter of ‘Quest in the Caribbean’ ...

What would a sailing challenge be without green water over the bow and a hard beat to windward? ‘Quest on the Thorny Path’ is the second book of the Quest series. You are now on the feared and fabled Thorny Path. Leave the laid back cruiser hangout of Georgetown, Bahamas behind and hit the big ocean waves for the first time. From Georgetown we take the path less traveled through the deserted and desolate out islands of the southern Bahamas. After a short stay in the Turks and Caicos, our course takes us to the north coast of Hispaniola. Christopher Columbus appropriately named this ...

Dale Scott's career as a professional baseball umpire spanned nearly forty years, including thirty-three in the Major Leagues, from 1985 to 2017. He worked exactly a thousand games behind the plate, calling balls and strikes at the pinnacle of his profession, working in every Major League Baseball stadium, and interacting with dozens of other top-flight umpires, colorful managers, and hundreds of players. What makes Scott's book truly different is his unique perspective as the only umpire in the history of professional baseball to come out as gay during his career.

What can the modern world truly learn from a community that has chosen simplicity over speed, skill over convenience, and faith over fear? In The Amish Path, Windu Thorne guides readers into one of the most fascinating living traditions of self-reliance still thriving today. This sixth volume of The Herbal Odyssey is not just an exploration of Amish culture, it is a practical and philosophical immersion into homesteading, ancient remedies, and disciplined off grid living. While previous volumes of the series traveled through Africa, Asia, and the ancient world, this book brings the journey ...

An exegetical and theological exposition of the New Testament Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians. A sequential exploration of the scriptures, presented within the historical and literary context of the writing. The text is organized as twenty-two chapters, each a comprehensive presentation of a passage that is useful for about thirty minutes of personal study or about an hour of small-group study and discussion. The text is also useful as a resource for a facilitator of the study of these passages. Table of Contents _________________________________________ Galatians 1:1-24. ...

On December 3, 1999, the call crackled in to the men of the Worchester, Massachusetts Fire Department: a three-alarm warehouse blaze in a six-story windowless colossus of brick and mortar. What happened next - and how their lives and community were changed forever - offers an unprecedented look at these heroic men whose job it is to rush into burning buildings when everyone else just wants out.

“A moving and revealing story of a troubled country’s past.”- Kirkus Review After fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a doctor working at a prestigious hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dr. Mehdi Mostamand believed he had it all. But then, on one cold, snowy day in 1965, he saw an image that changed his life forever: a picture of a twelve-year-old blind boy in the newspaper rekindled old memories and reminded him of why he chose to become a doctor in the first place. Driven by his desire to help ailing children in remote Afghan villages, Dr. Mostamand gave up his comfortable job ...

When Mark Salzman is invited to visit a writing class at Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for Los Angeles’s most violent teenage offenders, he scrambles for a polite reason to decline. He goes—expecting the worst—and is so astonished by what he finds that he becomes a teacher there himself...

The Truth Behind St. Patrick’s Day What if everything you’ve believed about St. Patrick’s Day is only part of the story? Every year, millions celebrate with green, shamrocks, and talk of luck. But behind the tradition is something far more powerful. A story of pain. A story of surrender. A story of forgiveness. A story of salvation. This is not a book about luck. It is a book about Jesus Christ. Before there was St. Patrick, there was a Savior who came as a servant, lived among the broken, died on a cross for our sins, rose again in victory, and still intercedes for us today. St. ...

From the Emmy-winning writer and creator of All My Children, One Life to Live, and Loving, a memoir of her trailblazing rise to the top of the television industry, including behind-the-scenes stories from some of the most beloved soaps of all time Before there was Erica Kane, Adam Chandler, or...

Spark Your Own Renaissance with the Seven Principles of Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci's greatest masterpiece isn't hanging in the Louvre. His finest legacy was buried between the lines of pages upon pages of notes in his journals. There, bestselling author Michael J. Gelb excavated a...

Brought to you by Penguin. Following the success of Birds as Individuals, Len Howard spent the 1950s continuing to deepen her understanding of the birds in her garden. This book tells the story of one exceptional great tit that Len called Star. With patience, consistency and sensitivity, Len...

The shocking, brutal truth behind Viking history that the sagas refused to show you. Are you tired of sanitized tales of majestic warriors? Smothered in the Hall: The Brutal Reality of Viking Sleep uncovers the terrifying, untold history of how the Norsemen actually lived and barely survived the Scandinavian night. Step inside the Iron Age longhouse, not as a cozy sanctuary, but as a compromised containment vessel of overlapping hazards. Through the rigorous "Nocturnal Biocontainment Framework," this book exposes how the architecture of the Viking home actively weaponized the winter against...

How is it possible that the universe burst into being from the flash of a single fireball? In an age when scientific knowledge is doubling every generation, how do we reconcile the story of the universe with our spiritual roles on Earth? Join noted scientist and author Brian Swimme, PhD, on a...

Explore core Buddhist teachings, as well as practice through reflections and meditations, in this concise and inviting introduction. Ideal for anyone who is Buddhism-curious, The Buddha in You offers an accessible introduction to the key teachings of Buddhism. But Buddhism is so much more than...

Mob opens terrifying windows on the brutal and mysterious world of organized crime. You'll meet murderous wiseguys, scheming Dons and undercover agents risking their lives to break the Mob's most powerful syndicates. The picture that emerges from these stories is astoundingly complex and all too human: a world of warped desire and violent consequences that is at once shocking and fascinating.