Books with author David Adams

Pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, has been know to exist for thousands of years. Even before the common era, ancient mathematicians had found approximations for pi that were accurate to two digits (3.1). The Babylonians used 25/8 as an approximation of pi. The ancient Egyptians used 16/9 squared for pi. The next to improve the approximations for pi were Chinese mathematicians. The Chinese approximation was correct to seven digits (3.141592). In Greece, Archimedes used a polygon draw outside a circle, and a polygon drawn inside a circle, and extended pi to three digits (3.14). Finally, when infinite series were developed, one could calculate pi with pen and paper to as many digits as one had time for. It was not until computers came along that it was practical to calculate pi to a million digits. Here, in this book, are the results.

Growing up in a prominent lumber family in the Miramichi, brothers Will and Owen Jameson know little of the world beyond their town and the great men who work the forest, including their father. But as young men, the boys couldn’t be more different — where seventeen-year-old Will is headstrong and rugged, able to hold his own in the woods or in a fight, Owen, three years his junior, is literary and sensitive. What worries their mother Mary, however, is the prophecy told to her by a local woman upon Will’s birth: “that her first-born would be a powerful man and have much respect — but his brother would be even greater, yet destroy the legacy by rashness, and the Jameson dynasty [would] not go beyond that second boy.” She tries to laugh it off, but the prophecy becomes a part of local legend and hangs over the heads of the boys like a dark cloud.When their father dies in a freak accident and the management of the Jameson tracts and company falters, Will, as the true inheritor of his father’s “shrewd mind and fists to match,” quits school to take over. He’s a strong leader of men, but perhaps too strong at times, and dies while clearing a log jam during a run. Reggie Glidden, Will’s best friend and the Push of the Jameson team, takes Owen under his wing, searching for any small sign that the younger boy has his brother’s qualities. But Owen knows his limitations and, after his brother’s death and then rejection by the girl of his dreams, Lula Brower, he joins the army and heads off to war hoping to get himself killed. Instead, he returns a decorated war hero.Then he falls in love with the beautiful, childlike Camellia — the wife of Reggie Glidden — and soon Owen and Camellia find themselves watched on all sides, caught in the teeth of an entire town’s gossip and hypocrisy despite the innocence of their relationship. But for the community, it’s as if taking Owen Jameson — and therefore the whole Jameson family — down a peg or two will give them control over their changing world. Inexorably, Owen and Camellia are pulled into a chain of events that will end with death, disappearance, and a sensational trial.At the same time, realizing his destiny, Owen takes over the family business and begins what will become the greatest cut in New Brunswick history, his men setting up camp on the notoriously dangerous Good Friday Mountain. The teamsters spend months in fierce ice and snow, daily pitting themselves against nature and risking their lives for scant reward, in the last moments before the coming of mechanization that will make them obsolete. This heroic, brutal life is all Meager Fortune, the camp keeper, knows. A good and innocent man, he shows unexpected resolution in the face of the betrayals of the more worldly men around him.With The Friends of Meager Fortune, award-winning author David Adams Richards continues his exploration of New Brunswick’s Miramichi Valley, both the hard lives and experiences that emerge from that particular soil and the universal human matters that concern us all: the work of the hands and the heart; the nature of true greatness and true weakness; the relentlessness of fate and the good and evil that men and women do. It is a devastating portrait of a society, but it is also a brilliant commemoration of the passing of a world — one that cements David Adams Richards’ place as the finest novelist at work in Canada today.

All Math Words Dictionary is designed for students of pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, and intermediate algebra. It is designed using the four 'C's of math writing: Concise: Definitions are compact, yet understandable. Complete: All words and phrases of interest to targeted students are included, plus a few just beyond the scope of the target classes. Tables of symbols and notation, formulas, and units of measurement, plus lists of properties of objects give the student all the information needed to weld their understanding of the concepts and decipher many problems. Correct: The definitions have been thoroughly reviewed for mathematical and literary correctness. Comprehensible: The definitions are written to be understood by targeted students. Abundant illustrations aid in understanding. One of the difficulties many students experience in learning math skills has to do with the fact that an entire language, both spoken and written, has grown up around math. Students that acquire that language are successful in math studies. Students that do not acquire that language have serious problems with mathematics. This dictionary is designed to aid in the acquisition of the language of math. This dictionary has: over 3000 entries more than 140 notations defined in excess of 790 illustrations IPA pronunciation guide greater than 1400 formulas, equations, definitions, examples, identities and expressions. While teaching high school math, the author, David E. McAdams, noted that some students did not understand even simple math statements, such as “This equation is determinate.” Those students who had not acquired a basic math vocabulary were left behind, becoming frustrated and mentally dropping out of class. Mr. McAdams quickly added vocabulary exercises to his classroom teaching, but found that there were no adequate resources for vocabulary acquisition. All of the online math dictionaries and encyclopedias were either woefully incomplete, or written at a college graduate level. The author began by creating a vocabulary resource for his students, using as a guide the vocabulary actually used in the textbooks the students were using. The list of words swiftly grew, and the task of preparing these resources quickly grew beyond what a full-time teacher could accomplish with all the other activities important to teaching. Mr. McAdams was amazed at the enormous size of the math vocabulary that students must gain to be fluent in math. He took the development of this important resource seriously, and after devoting nine years to its development, has created All Math Words Dictionary. The list of words and phrases to be defined was collected from various textbooks in use in the United States and United Kingdom. Each of these words was carefully researched to find all of the ways the word was used in math classes for pre-algebra, beginning algebra, geometry and intermediate algebra. The definitions were carefully crafted and critically explored to meet the goals of concise, complete, correct and comprehensible. Usefulness of these definitions for non-native English speakers was considered and pronunciation was developed using the IPA. Knowing that a picture sometimes is worth a thousand words, Mr. McAdams added abundant illustrations to assist students in placing words in a visual context. The result of this extensive effort is All Math Words Dictionary, an important tool for math teachers.

David Adams Richards takes us behind his gun and into the Canadian forest for his most powerful work of non-fiction yet.In his brilliant non-fiction, David Adams Richards - first and foremost one of Canada's greatest and best-beloved novelists - has been writing a kind of memoir by other means. Like his previous titles Lines On Water, about his pursuit of angling, and Hockey Dreams, about the game his disabled body prevented him from playing, Facing the Hunter explores the meaning of a sport and the way in which it touches lives, not least that of the author. And as with God Is, his recent book about his faith, it is also an impassioned defence of a set of values and a way of life that Richards believes are under attack.Lovers of David Adams Richards' novels will be fascinated and enlightened to note the interplay between his former life as a keen hunter - he hunts less and less these days, as he explains - and the narratives and characters of his fiction. But this is also a perfect starting point for anyone coming new to Richards. The storytelling in this book, the evocation of the Canadian wild and those who venture into it, the sheer power of the prose, show a great writer at the height of his powers.

In his major new novel, The Friends of Meager Fortune, Richards explores the dying days of the lumber industry in the mid-twentieth century. This is a transfixing love story of betrayal, envy, and sexual jealousy, which builds to a tragically inevitable climax. It is also a devastating portrait of a pre-mechanized time, and a brilliant commemoration of the passing of a world. Rich with all the passion, ambition and almost mythic vision that defines David Adams Richards' work, The Friends of Meager Fortune is a profound and important book about the hands and the heart; about true greatness and true weakness; about the relentlessness of fate and the evil that men and women do. Wise, stark, and without a false word in it, it cements David Adams Richards' claim to be the finest novelist at work in Canada today.

Many of North America’s most beloved regions are artfully celebrated in these board books designed to soothe children before bedtime while instilling an early appreciation for the continent’s natural and cultural wonders. Each book stars a multicultural group of people visiting the featured area’s attractions and rhythmic language guides children through the passage of both a single day and the four seasons while saluting the iconic aspects of each place.

All Math Words Dictionary is designed for students of pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, and intermediate algebra. It is designed using the four 'C's of math writing: Concise: Definitions are compact, yet understandable. Complete: All words and phrases of interest to targeted students are included, plus a few just beyond the scope of the target classes. Tables of symbols and notation, formulas, and units of measurement, plus lists of properties of objects give the student all the information needed to weld their understanding of the concepts and decipher many problems. Correct: The definitions have been thoroughly reviewed for mathematical and literary correctness. Comprehensible: The definitions are written to be understood by targeted students. Abundant illustrations aid in understanding.One of the difficulties many students experience in learning math skills has to do with the fact that an entire language, both spoken and written, has grown up around math. Students that acquire that language are successful in math studies. Students that do not acquire that language have serious problems with mathematics. This dictionary is designed to aid in the acquisition of the language of math.This dictionary has: over 3000 entries more than 140 notations defined in excess of 790 illustrations IPA pronunciation guide greater than 1400 formulas, equations, definitions, examples, identities and expressions.While teaching high school math, the author, David E. McAdams, noted that some students did not understand even simple math statements, such as “This equation is determinate.” Those students who had not acquired a basic math vocabulary were left behind, becoming frustrated and mentally dropping out of class. Mr. McAdams quickly added vocabulary exercises to his classroom teaching, but found that there were no adequate resources for vocabulary acquisition. All of the online math dictionaries and encyclopedias were either woefully incomplete, or written at a college graduate level.The author began by creating a vocabulary resource for his students, using as a guide the vocabulary actually used in the textbooks the students were using. The list of words swiftly grew, and the task of preparing these resources quickly grew beyond what a full-time teacher could accomplish with all the other activities important to teaching.Mr. McAdams was amazed at the enormous size of the math vocabulary that students must gain to be fluent in math. He took the development of this important resource seriously, and after devoting nine years to its development, has created All Math Words Dictionary. The list of words and phrases to be defined was collected from various textbooks in use in the United States and United Kingdom. Each of these words was carefully researched to find all of the ways the word was used in math classes for pre-algebra, beginning algebra, geometry and intermediate algebra. The definitions were carefully crafted and critically explored to meet the goals of concise, complete, correct and comprehensible. Usefulness of these definitions for non-native English speakers was considered and pronunciation was developed using the IPA. Knowing that a picture sometimes is worth a thousand words, Mr. McAdams added abundant illustrations to assist students in placing words in a visual context.The result of this extensive effort is All Math Words Dictionary, an important tool for math teachers.