Best Selling Books by Michael Ross

Embark on a sweeping journey through the epic history of one of the world''s most magnificent and demanding landscapes. This comprehensive chronicle begins not with a human footstep, but with the colossal geological forces that shaped the land and the bitter, wind-swept chill of the Ice Age. It delves into the lost world of Beringia, a vast subcontinent roamed by woolly mammoths and fearsome predators, and uncovers the faint, 24,000-year-old traces of the First Peoples in the Bluefish Caves-the earliest evidence of human life in North America. Discover the sophisticated and resilient societies of the Yukon''s First Nations, who for millennia lived in a deep, spiritual rhythm with the land, their history recorded not in books but in the power of oral tradition and the ancient trails that connected their communities. Witness the dramatic and often disruptive arrival of the outside world, as the relentless push of the European fur trade forever altered the continent''s economic and social fabric. This sets the stage for the single event that would forever define the Yukon in the global imagination: the Klondike Gold Rush. Relive the desperate stampede of 100,000 prospectors, the unimaginable ordeal of the Chilkoot and White Pass trails, and the explosive birth of Dawson City, the chaotic "Paris of the North." Learn how the famed North-West Mounted Police imposed a distinctly Canadian order on the wild frontier, ensuring the Klondike rush was one of the most peaceful in history. Follow the territory''s story beyond the rush, through a quiet interlude of industrial consolidation dominated by colossal gold dredges and the rise of a new silver-mining belt. The narrative pivots dramatically with the Second World War and the monumental construction of the Alaska Highway, a military mega-project that shattered the Yukon''s isolation, made the sternwheelers obsolete, and decisively shifted the territory''s center of gravity from Dawson City to the new, modern hub of Whitehorse. This new road network fueled a post-war mining boom that redefined the Yukon''s economy for a generation. The final chapters chronicle the Yukon''s profound modern transformation, beginning with the rise of First Nations political advocacy. This powerful movement, sparked by the landmark document "Together Today for our Children Tomorrow," led to two decades of painstaking negotiation, culminating in the Umbrella Final Agreement. This historic modern treaty ushered in an unprecedented era of self-government, fundamentally reshaping the political landscape and creating a unique system of shared power. This book tells the complete story of the Yukon today-a resilient and evolving north grappling with the challenges of climate change and reconciliation, its modern economy built on a dynamic mix of mining, tourism, and the powerful new engine of its self-governing First Nations.

My dissertation entitled The Representation of Real-Life and Fictional Jews in 16th- and 17th-Century Spanish cautivo Literature addresses how Spanish Catholics depicted Jews in works dedicated to captivity in the Ottoman Empire. Despite the almost uniform rejection of open Jewish life in western Europe, with the Papal States and Venice being the prominent exceptions, Spanish cautivo literature accurately and, surprisingly, positively portrayed Jewish life in Muslim lands. Chapter I details the heterogeneous nature of Mediterranean Jewry, the effects of the Iberian expulsions, and the unique and symbiotic relationship between the Ottoman Empire and European Jews. The contemporary Jewish sources that are cited are invaluable in helping understand various Jewish thought processes, revealing not just how the viewed themselves, but also how they interpreted the Mediterranean world (particularly the rise of the Ottoman Empire and its clashes with the Christian West). Chapter II focuses on the representation of Jews in Spanish cautivo literature set in the two most important North African corsair cities, Algiers and Tunis. The former city is particularly relevant because Cervantes spent over five years as a captive there, and the corsair city par excellence is the setting for two plays, one by Lope de Vega (Los cautivos de Argel) and one by Cervantes (Los baños de Argel), that embody the literary rivalry between two of Spain''s most famous Golden Age writers. The city of Tunis is discussed in the section dedicated to Lope''s Guzmán el Bravo, which in many ways can be considered an extension of his rivalry with Cervantes (despite the latter''s death five years earlier). The aim of the final chapter (Chapter III) is to explore, with particular attention given to Ottoman Jews (i.e., Jews living under Ottoman rule), Cervantes'' recreations of the political and economic realities of eastern Mediterranean societies in El amante liberal and La gran sultana, the caricatured representation of Jewish doctors in Istanbul in Viaje de Turquía, and the realistic treatment of the favorable situation of the Jews in Aleppo in Relación de la vida del capitán Domingo de Toral y Valdés escrita por el mismo capitán.

It wasn''t much more than a decade ago that getting great guitar tone on a track required thousands of dollars worth of equipment and studio time. In the digital age, ending up with great-sounding guitar tracks on a recording is infinitely easier and cheaper. IK Multimedia AmpliTube software-with its plethora of stompbox effects, guitar and bass amp modules, cabinet emulations, microphone models, and rack effects-provides the power that guitarists need to model virtually any guitar tone. What''s more, its 4-track audio player/recorder with Speed Trainer will allow you to practice recording and overdubbing your guitar, even if you do not yet have any recording software on your computer. But how do you harness AmpliTube''s power and use it to become a better guitarist? GREAT GUITAR TONE WITH IK MULTIMEDIA AMPLITUBE: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE will show you how. After discussing how to best set up your guitar and computer for the tasks ahead, the book explains how to get the most out of all of AmpliTube''s amps, cabinets, effects, and recording capabilities. This book won''t only show you how to use AmpliTube to emulate any musical genre or guitarist, it will show you how to use the program to become a better guitarist and help you down the path to creating your own distinctive guitar tone.

These two diseases are so common and carry such a poor prognosis, when present together, that even a small advance in their treatment could result in considerable improvement in outcomes.

One summer evening, a fiery ball sets off from the middle of the moon and crash lands in Bramble wood on the west coast of England. Troy, his dog Nesbit, and friend, Desmee, discover a strange magical box! A series of star maps are immediately uploaded into Troy''s head by something inside the box. Other forces are out to capture the magical box. The army led by Major Cringeworthy, and the dreaded alien Dammers, are in hot pursuit. Why were the star maps uploaded into Troy''s head? What are the Krodollo crystals? Why is the moon losing its moonshine? What will it mean for Planet Earth? Will Troy, Desmee, and Nesbit, be ready for a roller-coaster adventure of a lifetime?