Esper & Starn are twin boys who live in a grim world that has been almost laid waste by massive volcanic explosions. Very little grows in Orchard, which used to be a fruit-growing area, but with the death of insects & birds, pollination of the fruit trees is a tedious & precarious undertaking. When the boys discover an intriguing old manuscript in a locked room in their apartment, which tells of gold on one of the forbidden islands the people can see from the coastline, they determine to go on gold-hunt. They manage to construct a glider that takes them far from their home territory, & so begins a whole new adventure for the boys, as they travel from island to island in search of gold. Their adventures are many & they come close to death. They do in the end, find the gold
- but it is nothing like what they expected.
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The second collection of stories from Yiyun Li, author of the Guardian First Book Award-winning A Thousand Years of Good Prayers & The Vagrants. The stories in this collection, like the stories in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, are mostly set in China. The country portrayed here is the China of the 21st century, where economic development has led to new situations unknown to previous decades: residents in a shabby apartment building witnessing in awe the real estate boom; a local entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist sheltering women in trouble in her mansion; a group of retired women discovering fame late in their lives as private investigators specialising in extramarital affairs; a young woman setting up a blog to publicise the alleged affair of her father. Underneath the veneer of prosperity & opportunity, however, lie the struggles of characters trying to reorient themselves in the unfamiliar landscapes of modern China: a widower, reminiscing about his wife, confronts a young unmarried woman purchasing condoms in a pharmacy; a new wife makes a plea to have a baby with her husband who was to be executed only to discover that she has become an instant celebrity; a middle-aged couple in America, who, upon losing their only daughter, return to their hometown in China to hire a young woman as a surrogate mother. These characters` fates are affected as much by the historical moments in which they reside as by the choices they make. Yiyun Li`s new collection of stories is a report from the front-line of a changing world, & confirms Li to be a writer not to be missed. ...

Gold Coast & Region in Queensland in a series of maps from Hema presenting Australia’s main cities with three maps: a detailed street plan of the central area, a road map of the city with its outer suburbs, plus a map of the wider surrounding region for out-of-town excursions. The Gold Coast map has on one side street plans of the central Gold Coast area from Southport & Main Beach to Broad Beach, plus of Coolangatta – Tweed Heads, both with lists of accommodation facilities. The adjoining Gold Coast Suburban map at 1:37, 300 covers an area between the South Stradbroke Island & the state border & in addition highlight surfing beaches. On the reverse a regional map at 1:70, 500 of the Gold Coast & Hinterland covers a wider surrounding area including the Springbrook & Lamington National Parks. Both the suburban & the regional maps are indexed & show the road network indicating unsurfaced roads & tracks. Symbols mark roadside rest areas, campsites, accredited information centres, places of interest, etc. Topography is indicated by names of mountain ranges & selected peaks, plus rivers & lakes; national & state parks, conservation areas & reserves are all highlighted. The both maps also show postal codes. To see other titles in this series please click on the series link. ...

Touring map of the Gold Coast region of Queensland from UDB Gregory’s. The main map at 1:160, 000 covers the Gold Coast & its hinterland as far as the Mount Lindesay Highway. On the reverse there at street plans at 1:25, 000 of Runway Beach to Broadbeach, Mermaid Beach to Palm Beach, Currumbin to Tugun, & Coolangatta
- Tweed Heads areas, plus an enlargement for Surfers Paradise highlighting accommodation. The map

Includes:: brief descriptions of “ The best of the Gold Coast” & lists of local events, wineries & facilities in national parks. To see other titles in this series of touring maps from UBD Gregory’s please click on the series link.


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Rejected by his tribe & hunted by the kin of the man he killed, Ukhayyad & his thoroughbred camel flee across the desolate Tuareg deserts of the Sahara. Between bloody wars against the Italians in the north & famine raging in the south, Ukhayyad rides for the remote rock caves of Jebel Hasawna. There, he says farewell to the mount who has been his companion through thirst, disease, lust & loneliness. Alone in the desert, haunted by the prophetic cave paintings of ancient hunting scenes & the cries of jinn in the night, Ukhayyad awaits the arrival of his pursuers & their insatiable hunger for blood & gold. Gold Dust is a classic story of the brotherhood between man & beast, the thread of companionship that is all the difference between life & death in the desert. It is a story of the fight to endure in a world of limitless & waterless wastes, & a parable of the struggle to survive in the most dangerous landscape of all: human society. ...

One Thursday in 2008 the price of gold went above a thousand dollars an ounce for the first time in history. All over the world, at least in countries with gold-bearing soil, people with no experience of prospecting began shopping for shovels & pickaxes, gold pans, tents, generators & all manner of equipment they had no idea how to use. & off they went mining. In 2013, Steve Boggan followed them, packing his bags & flying to San Francisco to join the 21st century`s gold rush in a quest to understand the allure of the metal
- & maybe find a bit for himself, too. Meeting a selection of colourful characters, he gets a crash course in small-scale prospecting while learning about the history & economics of gold. He also takes us back in time to the original gold rush, two centuries ago, tracing the path of the first intrepid 49ers who abandoned their roots & trekked thousands of miles, risking death for the chance of riches. Written with Boggan`s characteristic wit & self-effacing charm, Gold Fever is a hugely entertaining travelogue & a moving insight into a key period in the creation of modern America.
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Have you ever imagined giving up your day job & heading for the hills in search of gold? Journalist Steve Boggan decided to do just that when the price of the precious metal scaled dizzying heights in the wake of the global financial crisis. Clueless, & with neither equipment nor experience, Boggan flew to California & followed in the footsteps of the `49ers`, miners who fuelled the original Gold Rush of 1849. Along the way, terrified of bears, bubonic plague & rattlesnakes, he met a cast of colourful characters, including a former Navy Seal who risked his life every day & a man who once went on the run for five years in the mistaken belief that he was wanted by the law. In charming & witty prose, gold-fevered Boggan recaptures the excitement, the hopes & disappointments of the hunt, going beyond the story of modern prospectors to give a moving insight into the birth of modern America. ...

One Family. Five generations. An epic story of love & loss. China, 1879 With the Opium wars at their height, Fong Tak-Fat boards a ship to Canada, determined to make a life for himself & support his family back home. He will endure great hardship as he works to build the Pacific Railway & save every penny he makes to reunite his family. Canada, 2004 Amy Smith knows nothing of her family history, a secret her mother will not share, until she is summoned to her ancestral home in China to collect the forgotten belongings of family members whom she has never met. Can Amy finally unlock the door to her past? Telling the story of one family`s journey through five generations & across the seas, Gold Mountain Blues is a heartrending tale of sacrifice, endurance, hope & survival. ...

Gold Rush Geology by Thames & Kosmos introduces children to Earth Science. Pan for fake gold from inside a block of plaster “dirt”. Learn the techniques of panning for gold & about the precious element itself. An eight page manual with one experiment. Age 7 years+. ...

For much of the twentieth century travel by air was a luxury available only to the wealthy, & accordingly the airlines
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