-Ally's greatest fear is that everyone will find out she is as dumb as they think she is because she still doesn't know how to read---

Anyone who's ever lived in a foreign country knows what it's like to misunderstand the natives and their ways of doing things. Even if you've mastered the language, you're still a foreigner and some things are just. strange! Confusion is common, and we may find ourselves wondering more than we'd like to admit, "Why do they do it THAT way?" I spent time in several foreign countries, but by far my longest adventure overseas was in Japan. I lived there almost seven years. My first trip over, I only knew the words for colors and numbers in Japanese. And I could ask questions (but I had no idea what the answers people gave me were). Later on, I conducted nearly my whole life in Japanese. Even now, I know there is a lot I don't know, and I think I speak only "pidgin" Japanese. But friends humor me and tell me my Japanese is amazing. I'm easily humored. This collection of short stories mixes fact with fiction, which is something the foreigner may be unsure of anyway, in their non-native surroundings. Even after six years living in Japan, and having "amazing Japanese," many times when I'm there, I'm still not quite sure what's going on, so I simply go along. Understanding might not ever come anyway, and going along is just easier. Except for dealing with bankers, police officers, immigration officers, train officials, about 30% of taxi drivers, surly convenience store clerks, and the occasional stumble upon the local "mafia wanna-be's"-aside from dealings with these people, it is nearly always fun! The fiction stories have elements of truth in them, but are purely from my imagination, set in Japan and based on my own understanding of the culture during the various times I have called that place "home."

Whether you are planting a yard from scratch or modifying an existing area, Landscaping for Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest will help you select, arrange, and maintain plants and other landscape elements that fulfill wildlife needs. Homeowners, property owners, professional wildlife managers, landscape architects, and garden designers will all find it invaluable. A wealth of information is provided on: --Wildlife habitat and landscaping basics --Birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects likely to be attracted to your property --Specialty gardens for butterflies and hummingbirds --How to plant and maintain woodlands, grasslands, wetlands, and waterways --Feeders and nest boxes --Ponds and birdbaths --Potential problems --Wildlife viewing tips --Extensive plant lists

TALES OF THE EXPRESS This true story begins in 1826, at a small farm in New Hampshire. The main character is a scared, thirteen-year old girl, named Charlotte Parker. An alcoholic and abusive stepfather and stepbrother complicate her life and she runs away from home with an old horse. After running as far as the horse could take them, Charlotte disguises herself as a boy and tries to find work at a stable. She meets a kind-hearted man named Ebenezer Balch, who owns a livery stable and tavern called the Balch House. Eb takes the boy under his wing and vows to make a man of him. Reinventing herself as Charley Parkhurst, the "boy" becomes part of the family business. Charley stays on at the Balch house and learns to become a respected coachman. In 1844, when the Balchs' relocated to Providence Rhode Island, Charley, now 31 went along as well. At the "What Cheer House", in Providence, Charley meets two young men named James Birch and Frank Stevens, who are hired on as stable boys. Parkhurst trains them well as coachmen and during the California gold rush, Birch and Stevens helm a wagon train to the west. James Birch starts a stagecoach business in Sacramento and is wildly successful. Here we are introduced to a lawman named William Wallace Byrnes and see California hang its' first woman. Several future outlaws are introduced before James Birch can convince Charley Parkhurst to come to California to drive stagecoaches. Parkhurst travels to California with Birch and another coachman named Hank Monk, aboard ship, stopping in Jamaica, before taking a boat ride through the jungles, then riding mules over the mountains to Panama and a waiting ship, with cholera still lingering on her decks. When they get to California, Birch shows them the ropes and sends them down the road. While driving a stagecoach in the Mariposa mountains, Parkhurst is attacked by a sadistic killer named Tres Dedos and left for the bears to finish. A Cherokee poet, John Rolling Ridge, who was camped nearby, rescues Charley. The Mexican gang captures the two of them, but the leader, Joaquin Murrieta decides the gang doesn't need trouble with the U. S. mail and releases them. When back to work, Parkhurst drives with William Byrnes as a shotgun, they forge a tight friendship.William Byrnes joins the California Rangers to hunt down Murrieta. In the fall of 1855, Parkhurst was again in the company of his friend Hank Monk in the foothills of the Sierras, Placerville, where they befriend a young man from Norway, named John Thompson. Remembering his childhood in the Alps, Thompson builds himself a set of skis and eventually signs on to carry the winter mail across the Sierra Mountains to Carson City. In the spring, while Charley was on route to Redwood City, Parkhurst has trouble with a nasty horse and is kicked in the face and loses his eye. Monk cheers up his pal on a bear hunt, that nearly finishes Hank in the river. The following winter, Snowshoe Thompson saves the life of James Sisson, who was freezing to death in an abandon cabin in the Sierras. Charley Parkhurst and Hank Monk both drive the new Pioneer route from Placerville to Carson City. While on this route, Parkhurst is robbed at night by the bandit Sugarfoot. Horace Greeley then makes an appearance, and is treated to a wild ride and ridicule by Hank Monk. Promoting Monk to the rank of legend. April of 1860 saw trouble with the Paiute Indians, near Carson City, after some station keepers at a remote relay station kidnap two Indian women. When Snowshoe Thompson signs up to hunt Indians, Byrnes signs on to keep the Sierras' only winter mailman alive. Parkhurst decides to see the rest of the frontier, the plains. He signs on with the new "King of Stagecoaching" Ben Holladay, but doesn't find it to his liking. Charlie learns that Byrnes has been shot seriously and is in need of a trip to Ne

Arkansas artist George Dombek has sold his work to over sixty museums and corporate collections, including two works to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. He has received numerous awards, including the Arkansas Arts Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Dombek was born in Paris, Arkansas, the son of a coal miner. He became fascinated by art at the age of seventeen when he read about the work of Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline in Time magazine. Concerned that he couldn’t earn an adequate living as an artist, he studied architecture but was later drawn back into art and earned a master’s in painting. Throughout his career, he has practiced and taught architecture, while devoting his principal effort to painting, particularly in watercolor. All of Dombek’s work, in one or another fashion, creates the illusion of reality by following a step-by-step process of construction, similar to the work of an architect or a builder. Dombek has used this method, which he calls constructed realism, to explore a variety of subjects in a way that seems to bridge the usual distinctions between real and abstract. George Dombek: Paintings collects some of the artist’s most notable renderings of the themes he has pursued intensely for years: birds in trees, rocks, discarded cans and metal objects, enormous flowers seen in close-up, sticks bent in unusual ways, bicycles, and more.

Like a Fish Understands a Tree is a science fiction/romance novel.

This twenty-two volume set presents the appearance and behavior of thousands of species of animals along with species population and prospects for survival in a arranged alphabetically and easy-to-read format.