Media Search

Amazon.com

With language as colorful as a Canyonlands sunset and a perspective as pointed as a prickly pear, Cactus Ed captures the heat, mystery, and surprising bounty of desert life. Desert Solitaire is a meditation on the stark landscapes of the red-rock West, a passionate vote for wilderness, and a howling lament for the commercialization of the American outback.

Aus der Amazon.de-Redaktion

Menschen in der ganzen Welt fühlten sich von der Geschichte Lance Armstrongs inspiriert -- ein Weltklassesportler, der fast seiner Krebserkrankung erlag, um sich dann wieder völlig zu erholen und die Tour de France zu gewinnen, jenes mehrtägige Fahrradrennen, das für seine äußerst strapaziöse Intensität berühmt ist. Der Texaner Armstrong ist ein Sportler durch und durch, und die Veränderungen, die seine Krankheit in seinem Leben bewirkt hat, sind erstaunlich und beeindruckend. Dennoch ist er nicht daran interessiert, als Held aufzutreten.

Auch wenn sein Vokabular ein wenig machohaft daherkommt, seine Aktionen sind dazu geeignet, die abgebrühtesten Seelen dahinschmelzen zu lassen: eine Krebsstiftung und ein Benefiz-Radrennen, sein erstaunliches Engagement beim Training, das ihn unzählige Hürden überwinden ließ, seine Treue den Menschen und Unternehmen gegenüber, die nie den Glauben an ihn verloren hatten. Das Buch geht sehr ins medizinische Detail, was für empfindliche Seelen möglicherweise zu viel des Guten sein könnte. Von der Chemotherapie über chirurgische Eingriffe bis hin zur künstlichen Befruchtung seiner Frau -- Ihnen wird kein Röntgenbild, kein Infusionsapparat und keine unangenehme Nebenwirkung erspart.

Sportler und Trainer auf der ganzen Welt werden bei den Ausführungen über seine Trainingsmühen vom gleichen Detailreichtum profitieren -- jede schmerzende Sehne, jeder verregnete Nachmittag und jeder noch so kleine Triumph während seiner langen Erholungsphase wird hier lebhaft beschrieben. It's Not About the Bike ist der perfekte Titel für dieses Buch über Leben, Tod, Krankheit, Familie, Rückschläge und Triumphe (und eben nicht unbedingt über das Fahrrad). --Jill Lightner

Amazon.co.uk

People around the world have found inspiration in the story of Lance Armstrong--a world-class athlete nearly struck down by cancer, only to recover and win the Tour de France, the multiday bicycle race famous for its gruelling intensity. Armstrong is a thoroughgoing Texan jock, and the changes brought to his life by his illness are startling and powerful, but he's just not interested in wearing a hero suit. While his vocabulary is a bit on the he-man side (highest compliment to his wife: "she's a stud"), his actions will melt the most hard-bitten souls: a cancer foundation and benefit bike ride, his astonishing commitment to training that got him past countless hurdles, loyalty to the people and corporations that never gave up on him. There's serious medical detail here, which may not be for the faint of heart; from chemo to surgical procedures to his wife's in vitro fertilization, you won't be spared a single x-ray, IV drip, or unfortunate side effect. Athletes and coaches everywhere will benefit from the same extraordinary detail provided about training sessions--every aching tendon, every rainy afternoon, and every small triumph during his long recovery is here in living colour. It's Not About the Bike is the perfect title for this book about life, death, illness, family, setbacks, and triumphs, but not especially about the bike. --Jill Lightner, Amazon.com

Amazon.com

People around the world have found inspiration in the story of Lance Armstrong--a world-class athlete nearly struck down by cancer, only to recover and win the Tour de France, the multiday bicycle race famous for its grueling intensity. Armstrong is a thoroughgoing Texan jock, and the changes brought to his life by his illness are startling and powerful, but he's just not interested in wearing a hero suit. While his vocabulary is a bit on the he-man side (highest compliment to his wife: "she's a stud"), his actions will melt the most hard-bitten souls: a cancer foundation and benefit bike ride, his astonishing commitment to training that got him past countless hurdles, loyalty to the people and corporations that never gave up on him. There's serious medical detail here, which may not be for the faint of heart; from chemo to surgical procedures to his wife's in vitro fertilization, you won't be spared a single x-ray, IV drip, or unfortunate side effect. Athletes and coaches everywhere will benefit from the same extraordinary detail provided about his training sessions--every aching tendon, every rainy afternoon, and every small triumph during his long recovery is here in living color. It's Not About the Bike is the perfect title for this book about life, death, illness, family, setbacks, and triumphs, but not especially about the bike. --Jill Lightner

Amazon.com

Cosmos was the first science TV blockbuster, and Carl Sagan was its (human) star. By the time of Sagan's death in 1996, the series had been seen by half a billion people; Sagan was perhaps the best-known scientist on the planet. Explaining how the series came about, Sagan recalled:

I was positive from my own experience that an enormous global interest exists in the exploration of the planets and in many kindred scientific topics--the origin of life, the Earth, and the Cosmos, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, our connection with the universe. And I was certain that this interest could be excited through that most powerful communications medium, television.

Sagan's own interest and enthusiasm for the universe were so vivid and infectious, his screen presence so engaging, that viewers and readers couldn't help but be caught up in his vision. From stars in their "billions and billions" to the amino acids in the primordial ocean, Sagan communicated a feeling for science as a process of discovery. Inevitably, some of the science in Cosmos has been outdated in the years since 1980--but Sagan's sense of wonder is ageless. --Mary Ellen Curtin