Back to the Trees and Caves

After dedicating over three decades to managing wilderness areas for the USDA Forest Service, Jonathan Klein comes to a sobering realization: the wilderness within the lower forty-eight is, at best, a theatrical semblance of the real essence of wild. Upon retirement at age sixty, Klein embarks on a solo canoe journey across the untamed expanses of northern Canada, yearning to uncover the authentic wilderness that eludes him. Back to the Trees and Caves unfolds this riveting 700-mile adventure from Saskatchewan to Hudson Bay, across landscapes untouched by time.

The voyage is far from tranquil. Klein battles violent storms, navigates raging rapids, and crosses lake expanses that mirror oceans. After seven grueling weeks, an utterly exhausted Klein reaches Churchill, Manitoba, but not without facing a life-and-death encounter with an apex predator, a confrontation that brings him face to face with the harsh yet majestic reality of the wild.

As Klein paddles through the endless miles, the journey morphs into more than a physical quest; it becomes a conduit for profound reflections on the intrinsic value of wild places. Not just for the wandering souls of humans, but as irreplaceable havens for the myriad wild creatures that inhabit them. The narrative encapsulates Klein’s evolving insights on the sanctity of these landscapes and the imperative to shield them from the unrelenting grasp of human consumption.

Barum Boy

Born illegitimate in the 1940s, Barum Boy is the story of one man’s journey to find his identity and place in the world. As a young boy, he yearns for a father and sets out to prove himself to his peers through reckless adventures. When he joins the Merchant Navy as a teenager, he experiences the world and its consequences firsthand. Struggling with his own sexuality and a mature homosexual relationship, he eventually finds his soulmate and true love, paving the way for a successful career. Follow his 50-year journey through life’s ups and downs, as he comes of age and learns what it means to survive and thrive as a human being.

Baseball Confidential

Baseball Confidential is a revealing look at behind the scenes communication between players, coaches, and managers at all levels of baseball. The book consists of stories and interviews with former players, coaches, and managers mostly at the Major League Baseball level.

This book is written for baseball fans. Every fan wants to know what is said on the mound, in the locker room, behind closed doors and more. With my exposures to coaches, players and fans that is all brought to light in Baseball Confidential. Readers are invited to come behind the closed doors.

The book reveals many funny and good stories related to the mentioned, behind-the-scenes communication. This is a baseball book that includes what coaches say to players: to pitchers on mound visits, pre- and post-game pep talks, and more.

Beautifully Bare, Undeniably You

Beautifully Bare, Undeniably You is a book about the journey of discovering one’s truest self. Following a therapeutic process, the reader is guided along a path to gain a more comprehensive understanding of who they are and the factors that have contributed to their current state of being. Interwoven with powerful song lyrics, each section represents a different, yet interconnected stage along this process. Each section and/or chapter includes the following: a therapeutic or theoretical explanation of the given stage in the process, one or more techniques identified to help reader successfully navigate the process, and at least one vignette that represents a time in the lived experiences of one or both authors, which exemplifies either our struggle or successes during our journey. The vignettes are a raw, exposed, and vulnerable window into the human condition.

Beware! The Cascading Has Arrived

This book had its origins in the many natural disasters that seemed to be increasing in number and intensity in recent years. An ever-increasing loss of life, spiraling economic costs and losses, and a lack of national, coordinated recognition and understanding of the dangers these natural disasters foretold were evident.  Additional concerns included a political attitude that ignored the realities of the dire future impacts of climate change.  Priority for short-term issues which has taken precedence over the need for long-term policies, including financing, that address the needed changes were evident. Many of the requirements and procedures necessary for these changes will require attitudinal and behavioral changes. These will necessitate taking care of our oceans. Changes in land use will most likely need the migration of large segments of our population and will not be popular.

            Although many of the changes will not be happily received and will require significant funding allocations, the alternatives to not taking action are far worse.  Natural disasters of worse magnitude than we have experienced will continue to occur, and the cascading effects will be beyond imagination.

            An approach to preparation that involves planning and funding outside of political control, involving local, state, regional, and national involvement is necessary.  Cadres of high school graduates and college-age students who are willing to serve a one-to two-year service program could provide a ready force to assist in dealing with the planning of pre-event needs and helping with dealing with the aftermath of disasters should be implemented.

Beyond Gravity - Vector Fitness Training

What’s in it for you?  Beyond Gravity - Vector Fitness Training will quickly inspire you to:

1. Increase excitement for working out and getting the body training results you or your clients/athletes want ASAP. 

2. Use a variable directional system to stimulate the mind and body in order to reap the most of every set.
3. Target and maximally develop any specific segment of skeletal muscle for most any function or sports skill.
4. Get up to 10+ times more out of most any standard resistance exercise machine, free weigh, or calisthenic exercise.
5. Reduce injury and painful exercise motions, while breaking through sticking points and progress plateaus

The Training Doc...

Harry J. Einsig, MD, ATC talks the talk with distinctive sports medicine credentials, including Triple Board Certification in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Electrodiagnostic Medicine, and Athletic Training; many public medical and athletic training presentations; published research and articles; and televised medical segments on ABC, NBC, and CBS. He also walks the walk as a highly successful international level wrestler and U.S. national freestyle champion; Pennsylvania state honored football player; 20+ year coach encompassing wrestling, football, men's and women's lacrosse, baseball, softball, and basketball; and inventor/U.S. Patent holder of exercise machines and methods. His unique experience and charisma allow him to take the fitness and sports training industry by storm and transform it to a higher level ... BEYOND GRAVITY.

Beyond the Hedge of Thorns

Beyond the Hedge of Thorns recounts the small moments in the everyday life of a boy growing up in a Pennsylvania mining town during the vanished era when the butcher, grocer, and milkman delivered right to the house, television had not yet arrived, and kids played softball on vacant lots, cruised the woods, and got into more or less innocent trouble.

Set against the backgrounds of the Second World War, illnesses not yet banished, and anthracite coal mining, with its machinery, scarred landscapes, profoundly influencing the town’s inhabitants, the boyhood described here was nevertheless a happy one, full of modest adventures in unlikely places. John S. Barrett brings it back to life in these pages with a unique voice and a grand gift for remembering the details, colors, and emotions of those times.

BFF: Black Father Figures

Who is your BFF?

There is a special breed of men out there who love and care for children that are not biologically their own. These men have no hidden agenda to gain notoriety or self-recognition; but their entire purpose and premise for life is to help young men and women reach their potential. You don’t always get it right, you won’t always do things the right way, but one thing remains constant: the intention of your heart. So, I challenge you to open the pages of this book and let your past sorrows gain resolutions and your future dreams and visions gain clarity and wings as you sprout into the man whom young children need in their lives.

Bihar Days

Prior to 1947, the Maithil Brahmans dominated North Bihar culturally, politically, and economically. Darbhanga Raj, the richest zamindari estate in British India, was owned by a family of the elite sub-group of Brahmans, the Srotriyas. The high prestige of this elite was based on a lifestyle prescribed by ancient law codes involving simplicity of life, daily Vedic rites, and intermarriage within a small network of lineages 24 generations deep. It was a highly conservative, inward-looking, isolationist community.

In 1980, anthropologist Carolyn Brown Heinz was privileged to see inside this elite community with a one-year grant from the Indo-US Subcommission and return trips over the next two decades. Independence had brought elimination of royal titles and dismantling of the vast Darbhanga Raj estate. The last king had died. These changes upended the old order, and she was able to observe the fall-out at close range. Told in first person, this is a highly personal account, told with grace and compassion.

An unexpected development during the same period was the emergence of a women’s art form known as Mithila or Madhubani Art, which Heinz was also able to observe at first hand and describe in this work.

Birds, Beaches, and Biologists

Flamingos, snowy egrets, ospreys, terns, black skimmers: These are nature stories.

What is it like to follow white-tailed tropicbirds in a small plane, miles from land, over the vast Caribbean Sea? Or capture wintering common terns from a small shark fishing boat in southern Trinidad?

Chesapeake Bay, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, Southern France: This is a travelogue. 

How does a “flamingo roundup” in France include people from seven countries (and five languages) working in unison? How did a disappearing island (now being restored) in Chesapeake Bay once sheltering Native Americans, British troops, and a fishing village become a wildlife mecca?

Searing heat, hungry insects, boat problems, rescuing men at sea. This is a true-life adventure.

Learn how fieldwork in Green Bay, Wisconsin on night herons ends with saving two fishermen from drowning.

They are all part of Dr. Michael Erwin’s 40-plus-year career as a wildlife biologist. He brings his colorful experiences – the discoveries, the challenges, the dangers, and the joys – back to life in this riveting recollection of his love affair with our Planet Earth.

Birthed Anew: From Pain to Passion to Purpose

We all have a part deep within us that is fighting to make its exit. Whether it’s hidden secrets, traumatic experiences, or soul wrenching memories, it no longer wants to reside there. Let me introduce you to Grace. She weaves us through the course of her life as she embarks upon this quest for freedom from life’s shackles. On this journey, we experience her deeply rooted pain, and her drive towards deliverance. We witness her attempts of resurrection from the dark pits of pain to the moment of her personal triumph.

Pursing growth commences through the identification of the who, what, where, when and why’s in our lives. Gaining a better understanding of how our past paves our future can help individuals make positive choices that will support authentic healing and restoration.

Birthed Anew: From Pain to Passion to Purpose will shed light on commonly hidden skeletons while simultaneously revealing the beauty of what it actually means to transition from a painful situation to a purposeful one and ultimately experience the gift of forgiveness.

Black-Eyed Peas and Turnip Greens

“A better sister novel for To Kill a Mockingbird, this southern bildungsroman, Black-Eyed Peas and Turnip Greens written by 92-year-old first-time author Bonnie Smith, plants our imaginations vividly in the soil of her poverty-stricken childhood and develops in us not pity but endearing admiration. Both a raw confessional and tale of triumph, Smith’s voice is as fresh and flourishing as her first day of school amid violent bullies and shaming teachers whose relentless taunting only serve to fertilize a bounty of inner strength that will see her from coast to coast through decades of anti-female working conditions, failed marriages, and drug-abusing children. What most amazes and inspires in this sometimes funny, always generous, and deeply soul-searching autobiography, is that Smith remains thankful for the scarlet “P” that poverty etched upon her mind. I want all my high school students to read it as soon as possible, while the author lives to receive our thank you notes."

Lauren Graham

English Writing Instructor