Books about Perilous from Amazon.com

The fabulous foursome readers embraced as The Mysterious Benedict Society is back with a new mission, significantly closer to home. After reuniting for a celebratory scavenger hunt, Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance are forced to go on an unexpected search--a search to find Mr. Benedict. It seems that while he was preparing the kids' adventure, he stepped right into a trap orchestrated by his evil twin Mr. Curtain.

With only one week to find a captured Mr. Benedict, the gifted foursome faces their greatest challenge of all--a challenge that will reinforce the reasons they were brought together in the first place and will require them to fight for the very namesake that united them..
Price: $9.55 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped
for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what happened, what it tells us about human nature and about
America's westward expansion, remained shrouded in myth.

Drawing on fresh archaeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their
unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. But Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner party as well as later
attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. "The Donner Party," Rarick writes, "is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of
necessity."

A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, A Desperate Hope casts new light on one of America's most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront.

Praise for Desperate Passage:
"His is the first significant book, written, like Stewart's, in a novelistic mode and likely to gain popular readership, to incorporate this new data.... Rarick's account is not really about science; it's about humanity.... Rarick has done his homework."--New York Times Book Review

"Rarick takes an evenhanded and thorough approach to the story of the Donners' covered-wagon migration across the country and their winter entrapment in the Sierras. His telling is evocative and easy to read."--Seattle Times

"With a reporter's doggedness and a scholar's thoroughness, Rarick has clarified the historical details. ... Rarick makes this compelling frontier drama all the more so."--National Geographic Adventure Magazine.
Price: $14.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The End of Oil is a "geologic cautionary tale for a complacent world accustomed to reliable infusions of cheap energy." The book centers around one irrefutable fact: the global supply of oil is being depleted at an alarming rate. Precisely how much accessible (not to mention theoretical) oil remains is debatable, but even conservative estimates mark the peak of production in decades rather than centuries. Which energy sources will replace oil, who will control them, and how disruptive to the current world order the transition from one system to the next will be are just a few of the big questions that Paul Roberts attempts to answer in this timely book.

As Roberts makes abundantly clear, the major oil players in the world wield their enormous economic and political power in order to maintain the status quo. Of course, they get plenty of help from the tens of millions of consumers, particularly in the U.S. and Europe, who guzzle oil as if there is an unlimited supply. And this demand shows no sign of abating--nearly half of the world's population lives without the benefits of fossil fuels and they desperately want to be among the haves. In countries such as China and India, where energy systems are already breaking down, Roberts discusses how they are looking to oil to fuel their race for development, in many cases ignoring environmental considerations altogether.

Though there is much to be pessimistic about, Roberts does uncover some positive developments, such as the race for alternative energy sources, notably hydrogen fuel cells, which could help to ease us off of our oil dependence before a full-blown energy crisis occurs. No one book could cover every aspect of what Roberts calls "arguably the most serious crisis ever to face industrial society," but The End of Oil is a remarkably informative and balanced introduction to this pressing subject. --Shawn Carkonen.
Price: $4.15 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the fourth "epic novel" by the wildly popular Dav Pilkey, young troublemakers George and Harold are back with Mr. Krupp, the Jerome Horowitz Elementary principal they previously transformed into the superhero Captain Underpants with their 3-D hypno ring. This comic adventure begins in New Swissland, where everyone has a silly name. ("Just ask their president, the Honorable Chuckles Jingleberry McMonkeyburger Jr. or his lovely wife, Stinky.") New Swissland, just southeast of Greenland, is the home of the inventor of the Shrinky-Pig 2000 and the Goosy-Grow 4000--Professor Pippy P. Poopypants. When the professor decides to pitch his inventions in the United States, he is laughed out of every institution of higher learning because of his unusual name. Frustrated, he decides to become an elementary school science teacher where the innocent children will, he assumes, be accepting and loving.

This is where his world collides with George and Harold's, who are not accepting of his funny name, but instead explode with laughter and promptly craft a new comic book called "Captain Underpants and the Pied Pooper of Piqua." This hilarious book will crack Pilkey fans up with tiny toilets of truth, evil gerbils, and even Cher's greatest hits. (The children--not notoriously good spellers--note: "All animal cruelty was simulated. No actual girbles were forsed to listen to Cher.") And what becomes of Professor Poopypants? He gets even, devising a method to convert all names into silly names. He creates a chart in which everyone has to use letters from their own first and last names to create a madcap moniker. In the end, George and Harold learn that it's not nice to make fun of people: "'Wow,' said Harold. 'I think this is the first time one of our stories ever had a moral!' 'Probably the last time, too,' said George. 'Let's hope so,' said Harold." --Flunky Pizza Chunks (Ages 8 to 12) .
Price: $0.01 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP or WHFRP) is a roleplaying system created by Games Workshop It is set in the Old World, which bears some resemblance to late medieval / renaissance Europe. The world is threatened by the forces of Chaos. The major power in the Old World is the Empire, in which most of the adventures are located. The Empire itself is a country full of intrigue, conspiracies, and dark plots. This is the core set of rules that everyone needs in order to play the RPG.

BL Publishing is the publishing wing of the world famous Games Workshop group of companies. As well as its new Black Industries imprint, the division is also home to the Black Library, which has been producing best-selling and award-winning novels, comics and artbooks set in the worlds of Warhammer since 1997. It also includes the Black Flame fiction imprint for non-Warhammer titles, and Warhammer Historical Wargames.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle was originally published in 1986 and subsequently licensed to Hogshead Publishing. This is the second edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

.
Price: $22.92 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In April 1970, during the glory days of the Apollo space program, NASA sent Navy Captain Jim Lovell and two other astronauts on America's fifth mission to the moon. Only fifty-five hours into the flight of Apollo 13, disaster struck: a mysterious explosion rocked the ship, and soon its oxygen and power began draining away. Commander Lovell and his crew watched in alarm as the cockpit grew darker, the air grew thinner, and the instruments winked out one by one. The full story of the moon shot that almost ended in catastrophe has never been told, but now Lovell and coauthor Jeffrey Kluger bring it to vivd life. What begins as a smooth flight is transformed into a hair-raising voyage from the moment Lovell calls out, "Houston, we've got a problem." Minutes after the explosion, the astronauts are forced to abandon the main ship for the lunar module, a tiny craft designed to keep two men alive for just two days. But there are three men aboard, and they are four days from home. As the hours tick away, the narrative shifts from the crippled spacecraft to Mission Control, from engineers searching desperately for solutions to Lovell's wife and children praying for his safe return. The entire nation watches as one crisis after another is met and overcome. By the time the ship splashes down in the Pacific, we understand why the heroic effort to rescue Lovell and his crew is considered by many to be NASA's finest hour. This riveting book puts the reader right in the spacecraft during one of the worst disasters in the history of space exploration. Written with all the color and drama of the best fiction, Lost Moon is the true story of a thrilling adventure and an astonishing triumph over nearly impossible odds. It was a major Oscar(R)-nominated motion picture directed by Ron Howard and starred Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon..
Price: $3.30 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $7.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Rashid Khalidi's powerful book examines the record of Western involvement in the Middle East and analyzes the likely outcome of our most recent incursions into the area. Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the political and cultural history of the entire region, Khalidi paints a chilling scenario of our present situation and yet offers a tangible alternative that can help us find the path to peace rather than Empire. Additionally, Professor Khalidi contributes a new introduction to this paperback edition, covering recent developments in Iraq and the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election..
Price: $2.35 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $4.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Two years have passed since the conclusion of the Shenandoah Sisters series, and Katie and Mayme are young women with big dreams, running Rosewood with the help of their two uncles and their friends Emma, Josepha, Jeremiah, and Henry. Jeremiah proposes to Mayme, but she is hesitant to accept. She loves him but does not want to give up her life at Rosewood. Local whites are furious at the Daniels brothers for harboring blacks at Rosewood and treating them like equals. The newly rising KKK kidnaps Jeremiah and plans to hang him. Will the brothers rescue him in time? Or will Mayme live to regret not saying yes to Jeremiah when she had the chance? Carolina Cousins Book 1..
Price: $4.64 [Notify me when price goes down.]