Product Description
a poem in prose, miniature book format ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Unbelievable
All I have to say is that ... this was the greatest thing I've ever read!

GREAT BOOK
Wow I was amazed at the writing of this book. It was so organzied and flowing. Anyone who wants to read about the weather and learn new information, this is your book. ... Read more

Product Description
Outdoors the branches freeze and wires droop with ice, but indoors the whole family remains cozy with hot soup, fresh popcorn, and a nap before a roaring fireplace. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great read.
I'm an avid GRRM fan and although this isn't as good as Game of Thrones or Clash of Kings, it's still a great read and I love the characters in this one just as much as the last 2 books.

A fierce storm
This third book in Martin's "let's redefine epic" series is a worthy successor to the first two, in addition to being an excellent set of stories all its own.The characters develop and change in many unexpected ways -- sometimes so unexpected as to be startling -- but the plot just keeps delivering the goods, the bads, and the very very uglies.

Martin didn't get any more compassionate as time went on, and he's still willing to yank the rug out from under his readers with no warning.One scene in particular upset me so badly that I had to put the book down for a several hours after it was over and pull myself together before I could go on reading.Some stories progress faster than others.Arya Stark in particular just wanders from place to place so long that it becomes a little unrealistic that she wouldn't have made it back to her family earlier than she does, and Bran Stark doesn't do much of anything interesting.It'll be great when Martin finally reaches the point of THAT story.On the other hand, the battle scenes at The Wall are everything a reader could hope for and Daenerys gets a deliciously awesome story that more than makes up for the boring odyssey she had in the last book.

Most interesting of all are the stories of the two Lannister brothers, Jaime and Tryrion.Jaime is a character whose death I'd been hoping for since he shoved Bran out a window back at the beginning of Book I, so it's a high compliment to Martin's writing that I actually started to respect if not like the character in this book.I wasn't expecting a redemption story from someone capable of such evil actions, but somehow Martin pulls it off.And despite having far less "screen" time than in previous books, Tryrion doesn't disappoint.His lifelong struggle for his father's respect comes to a head in this book, and their final scene is cathartic, darkly comic and well-earned.

The only downside to this book is the knowledge that most of the characters in it won't have their stories continued until Martin FINALLY publishes "A Dance With Dragons," the fifth book in the series, which is now in its fifth year of publication delay.When I met Martin earlier this year at a book signing, he made it clear that there is no publication date on the horizon, so who knows how long the wait will go on?I decided against reading the fourth book until the fifth book is out, because half a story doesn't interest me much, and after the fifth book is released and I've read it, all I'm going to want to know after that is when is the sixth book coming?And then the seventh?Unfortunately, Martin's talent as a writer engenders impatience in his readers, because you simply never want the story to end.But for the time being, I'm afraid that this IS the end of my time in the Seven Kingdoms and beyond.I'll re-read and return once there's a conclusion. ... Read more

Product Description
It is one of the great tales of man against the elements. In February 1968, in a howling gale from the North Pole, fishermen fought desperately for their lives, hacking at the deadly ice that caked their vessels. Visibility was almost nil and communications only intermittent.

When a wave swamped the hull of the trawler Ross Cleveland, she went down in minutes. It was reported that she had gone down with all hands. Yet thirty-six hours later First Mate Harry Eddom was found alive, after an incredible ordeal. Swept around all night in the raging sea in a life raft with the bodies of two dead shipmates, he finally made land on a remote shore. After walking miles over rock and scree in a near-deserted fjord, he took shelter by an uninhabited cabin for a second long, cold night, until a young shepherd chanced upon him. Harry Eddom's "return from the dead" was international headline news.

Meanwhile, an Icelandic fishing vessel was missing, too, and a Grimsby trawler, the Notts County, had run aground. The Icelandic Coast Guard risked their lives on tiny rafts in the deadly conditions to rescue eighteen men off the stranded vessel.

Ottar Sveinsson's vivid account is based on contemporary reports and interviews with the participants in those tragic and heroic events, including the exclusive account of Harry Eddom. It is one of the most tragic, and amazing, sea stories ever.
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Product Description

What makes a blizzard blow? How does an ice storm form? Which were the worst snowstorms in U.S. history? What causes an avalanche? The answers to these questions and many more are answered in this book that also includes gripping firsthand accounts from people who have survived some of nature's snowiest disasters. Chock-full of fun facts and experiments, survival tips, colorful photographs -- and so much more! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

DEEP FREEZE RESOURCE
An excellent resource for understanding the conditions and power of blizzards and other winter storms. Clear enough for less able readers, yet packed with information for those who want to know it all. Readers will come away with a perspective of the impact these storms have on humans, as well as a basic comprehension of the makings of a mighty storm. ... Read more

Product Description
Storm Codes presents the sights and sounds of Great Lakes shipping in the late 1960s through seven-year-old Katy's story of hope and determination. As a fierce ice storm rips through northern Minnesota, Katy and her mother wait restlessly for her father's ship to return to their harbor in Duluth. Storm Codes vividly combines historically based illustrations with nautical terms and descriptions. Katy even creates her own secret code to help bring her father home safely. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Bundle Up!
Tracy Nelson Maurer has written a lovely story about a young girl hoping for her father's safe return from his ship on Lake Superior.Christina Rodriguez has captured the warmth of home and family as well as the bitter cold of harsh Minnesota winters in her brilliant illustrations. Storm Codes is an absolutely gorgeous book.

Deserves award
The book is wonderful, the illustrations great for adult and child alike.It truly gives a flavor of the great lakes and the wonder of the weather and the power of nature.Christina Rodriguez truly illuminates the text in a way that speaks of significant knowledge and insight.A book to keep.

My Kids' New Favorite Book
WOW! What a fun book.My kids never tire of hearing and reading this book.We parents enjoy it too.Tracy Nelson-Maurer paints vivid images in our minds of how life is in November on Lake Superior.We bought this book for the libraries at both of our childrens schools.

Stories for Children Book Review
This is one of the most beautifully illustrated children's books that I've ever seen!The setting is Duluth, Minnesota, in the 1960s. During a raging ice storm, seven-year old Katy is worried about her father's safe return from Lake Superior to Duluth Harbor.He is the captain of the Edward B. Greene, an ore boat that stretches about 600 feet long and carries cargo such as taconite (pellets of baked iron ore) from Duluth to ports on some of the other Great Lakes.

As the storm rages on, Katy and her mother "batten down the hatches" at home, while Katy hopes that her father is doing the same on his ship.As she listens to the foghorn's "baaaah-rum" noise, she can see out the kitchen window that the foghorn is keeping time with the Harbor's lighthouse beacon. The combination of the foghorn sounds and the light flashes speak in codes to Great Lakes sailors, with each port having its own special series of flashes and sounds.Katy imagines that the rhythm of her own heartbeat is sending her own special code to her father, guiding him safely home.

In the morning, Katy and her mom head out in the raw weather to go to the canal at the mouth of the Harbor to await the arrival of the Edward B. Greene and Papa. The phone lines are down and the power is off from the force of the ice storm, so Ma decides they should wait where they can see any arriving ships. Before the leave home, Katy runs to her bedroom to take along with her the three "good-luck" pellets of iron ore that her father had given to her.

They sit at the mouth of the Harbor, on a bench.Katy sends her secret code to her father - her heartbeat - Buh-bump! Buh-bump! Buh-bump!Come home! Come home! Come home!

In the far distance, Katy's mom spots a small dot on the horizon with her binoculars. Could it be Papa's ship?

This is a historically based book that kids will love, not just for the great story and terrific illustrations, but also for learning the "secret" of the nautical codes of the Great Lakes sailors as well!



About the Author and Illustrator:

Author Tracy Nelson Maurer grew up near Duluth, and her grandfather was the late Captain Harvey C. Almstedt, skipper of the real Edward B. Greene. Her grandmother, Alice, knew everything about the boats coming in and out of the harbor; it was often joked that she knew more than her husband on this subject! Tracy now lives near Minneapolis with her husband and two children, and is the author of many nonfiction children's books.

Illustrator Christina Rodriguez earned her degree in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. Christina is a freelance illustrator and designer - her work has appeared in many children's books. She resides in Stillwater, Minnesota, with her husband and dog.

Both Tracy and Christina are members of the Minnesota branch of the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), a worldwide organization of over 22,000 members.

Highly recommended for young people who are almost ready to make the transition from picture books to chapter books.
Storm Codes is a children's picturebook set in Duluth, Minnesota during the 1960s, amid the sights and sounds of Great Lakes shipping were commonplace. Seven-year-old Katy and her mother wait anxiously for Katy's father's ship to return to the harbor; Katy even creates her own secret code to help bring her father back safe and sound. Author Tracy Nelson Maurer, herself a Duluth native, has crafted an emotional tale firmly grounded in nautical history. Storm Codes introduces young readers to basic nautical terms, and the color artwork of Christina Rodriguez perfectly evokes the restless ocean. Highly recommended for young people who are almost ready to make the transition from picture books to chapter books. ... Read more

Product Description
On the morning of Dec. 12, 2008 residents of the Northeast United States woke up to a devastated landscape and a terrible beauty. Over the night an inch of ice had fallen throughout a wide area that included Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Upstate New York. Much of the area was pushed pack into the 19th century as electricity and phones failed and water pumps and televisions stopped working. Tens of thousands of trees and utility lines blocked highways creating damage that took months to repair. In New Hampshire alone there was $75 million in damage to the electrical system. But the ice storm turned into an opportunity for neighbors to help each other out. Perfect strangers were welcomed into neighbors' homes and the ice-coated landscape became a photographer's paradise. This book, written by a reporter who covered the storm for months, captures every aspect of this unique storm. With 109 photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The "Weight" is Over!
I found this to be a book that chronicles both the visual and emotional sides of this historic event in our New England lives.I've been waiting for something like this to bring closure to this possibly once in a live time episode. ... Read more

Product Description
In this elegant and exciting collection Andrew Todhunter, himself an extreme sportsman and the author of the critically acclaimed Fall of the Phantom Lord, takes readers along as men and women push themselves to their limits in the world’s riskiest sports.

In several of these essays Todhunter writes from personal experience, joining his subjects as they free fall from cliffs, wriggle through narrow underground crevices, and dive deep beneath the ice of a frozen lake. In these adrenaline-laced accounts of extreme sportsmanship, Todhunter captures not only the thrill of conquest but the deep pleasure of being someplace few others have gone as well.
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Customer Reviews (2)

It doesn't get much better...
The cover is misleading.Many of the stories in the collection are not "Sport" at all.These are views into dangerous activities, which range from essays on rescue workers off the coast of Northern California to introspective musings on the chainsaw.Others are indeed sports, though not the type you view on ESPN; these are stories of individuals who have concocted their own unique flavor of excitement: from storm kayaking in the Pacific to leaping off high bridges. Todhunter is fascinated by risk and danger and the people who engage in these activities.

Whether climbing vertical ice or diving beneath frozen lakes, Todhunter delivers crisp, clean, first-hand insight, with a full shot of adrenaline in the mix.An experienced diver and climber, Todhunter plays at times neophyte, apprentice, novice, and savvy traveler (in measure with his experience) all with equal grace. He shares his far-flung interests in high-adrenaline experiences with a literary style that inspires rapt, hypnotic, page-turning awe.

what it's like to be there
Whether or not you are an ice climber, a diver for wrecks, or someone who explores the depths of caves, all of which the writer is, Todhunter can make you feel you've been there,oftenwith amazing descriptions, sometimes beautiful, sometimes chilling. Cases in point, a couple of brief samples from the chapter called "Beneath the ice."

"Far above the triangle [cut through the ice of a Sierra lake]is aglow in the dimly translucent field of ice. Our lines stretch upward, vanishing. I give a firm tug: "Okay." A tug comes back fom my tender. "Acknowledged." The trail of air bubbles works its way to the surface, rumbling faintly. I take a deep breath and expel it with one quick contraction of the diaphragm. The body of air breaks into three spheres that flatten into mushrooms the diammeter of dinner plates, expanding as they climb. Surrounded by a host of smaller bubbles, 100 silver dollars, 1,000 dimes--twirling in their wake, the three upturned bowls of air catch the sun as they near the surface, gleam like mirrors, and disappear."

And its ending [as they come up]:"On the other side of the ice, our tenders set off like sled dogs on the run. The lines go aut and we begin to move, gaining speed. Howling through our regulators, we ski upside down across the ice.The wedge of blue sky suddenly appears, hurtling toward us. As I dive headfirst through the triangle I'm blinded. I look straight down into thesun." ... Read more

Product Description
Enter the pages of Show-Me... Nature s Wrath and you will discover the horrors of destruction wrought by freak hail storms and fatal lightning bolts. This weather compendium is packed with tales of supercell tornadoes smashing into towns large and small, from as far back as 1880 and as recently as yesterday. Also included are the alternating calamities of drought and flood, as well as the blizzards and ice storms ushered into Missouri by winter s winds. Weather watchers who revel in what winter can bring will enjoy the stories of great blizzards that buried the Ozarks and brought major metropolises like St. Louis and Kansas City to a halt. Missouri s great spring floods and withering summer heat waves have been an object of fascination for poets, prose mongers and artists such as Thomas Hart Benton. And then there are those terrifying funnel clouds ... Read more

Product Description
First 3 titles in the series. "When humans first walked the world, when nature ruled the earth and sky, a proud tribe is threatened by a series of horrifying natural disasters. A bold young hunter named Torka ... leads the survivors over the glacial tundra on a desperate eastward odyssey to save their clan." ... Read more

Product Description
Winter storms of 2008?09, Winter storm, December 2008Northeast ice storm, December 2008 North Americansnowstorms, January 2009 Central Plains and Midwest icestorm, February 2009 Great Britain and Ireland snowfall,Panhandle hook, Freezing rain, Ice pellets, Thunderstorm,Tornado warning ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, published by The National Underwriter Company on January 19, 1998. The length of the article is 552 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: An ice store raged through the province of Quebec causing an estimated many billions of dollars in damage, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada general manager Raymond Mezda. Already, 200,000 insurance claims have been made, with an estimate that about a million homes in 25 counties were affected. The storm during Jan 1998 was considered to be the worst storm in a generation.

Citation Details
Title: Ice storm loss estimates lag.(property and casualty losses in Quebec)
Author: Daniel Hays
Publication: National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 19, 1998
Publisher: The National Underwriter Company
Volume: v102Issue: n3Page: p1(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more