Books with author David Shew

#1 New York Times bestseller With a new afterwordNow a Major Motion Picture Starring Steve Carell * Timothée Chalamet * Maura Tierney * and Amy Ryan “A brilliant, harrowing, heartbreaking, fascinating story, full of beautiful moments and hard-won wisdom. This book will save a lot of lives and heal a lot of hearts.” — Anne Lamott “‘When one of us tells the truth, he makes it easier for all of us to open our hearts to our own pain and that of others.’ That’s ultimately what Beautiful Boy is about: truth and healing.” — Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted David Sheff’s journey through his son Nic’s addiction to drugs and tentative steps toward recovery. Before Nic became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets. David Sheff traces the first warning signs: the denial, the three a.m. phone calls—is it Nic? the police? the hospital? His preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in itself. But as a journalist, he instinctively researched every treatment that might save his son. And he refused to give up on Nic. “Filled with compelling anecdotes and important insights . . . An eye-opening memoir.” — Washington Post

"To be a naturalist is better than to be a king."--William Beebe's journal, December 31, 1893William Beebe was a pioneer in the field of ecology, the father of deep-sea exploration, and an avid conservationist. This picture-book biography charts the life of this famous naturalist from his childhood studying animals in New Jersey through his later years studying birds at the research station he started in Trinidad.Back matter includes quotes from Beebe, a glossary of terms, and an illustrated cross section of the Bathysphere, which Beebe helped design.

Barnum Brown had one ambition as a child: to grow up to be a great dinosaur hunter. And that's just what he did when he was hired by the American Natural History Museum―working to build their astounding collection. Barnum had a knack for finding dinosaur bones, a skill that rivaled the paleontologists before him. His most amazing discovery was uncovering the largest carnivore that ever walked the earth: the "tyrant lizard king," Tyrannosaurus Rex! Dig into the life of the greatest dinosaur hunter of all time with this exciting biography of Barnum Brown―the best noses in the business for sniffing out dinosaur bones.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Boy explores the transformation of Jarvis Jay Masters who has become one of America’s most inspiring Buddhist practitioners while locked in a cell on death row. Jarvis Jay Masters’s early life was a horror story whose outline we know too well. Born in Long Beach, California, his house was filled with crack, alcohol, physical abuse, and men who paid his mother for sex. He and his siblings were split up and sent to foster care when he was five, and he progressed quickly to juvenile detention, car theft, armed robbery, and ultimately San Quentin. While in prison, he was set up for the murder of a guard—a conviction which landed him on death row, where he’s been since 1990. At the time of his murder trial, he was held in solitary confinement, torn by rage and anxiety, felled by headaches, seizures, and panic attacks. A criminal investigator repeatedly offered to teach him breathing exercises which he repeatedly refused. Until desperation moved him to ask her how to do “that meditation shit.” With uncanny clarity, David Sheff describes Masters’s gradual but profound transformation from a man dedicated to hurting others to one who has prevented violence on the prison yard, counseled high school kids by mail, and helped prisoners—and even guards—find meaning in their lives. Along the way, Masters becomes drawn to the principles that Buddhism espouses—compassion, sacrifice, and living in the moment—and he gains the admiration of Buddhists worldwide, including many of the faith’s most renowned practitioners. And while he is still in San Quentin and still on death row, he is a renowned Buddhist thinker who shows us how to ease our everyday suffering, relish the light that surrounds us, and endure the tragedies that befall us all.

The 1854 collision at sea between the American ship Arctic and the Vesta, a much smaller French steamship, set in motion one of the most harrowing events in maritime history. David W. Shaw has based this fascinating account on the firsthand testimony of the few who survived the wreck, including the Arctic's heroic captain, James C. Luce, who was forced to fight his mutinous crew as they took the lifeboats and left hundreds of passengers to suffer a cruel and painful death. Not only did 400 people -- including Luce's own frail son -- die by daybreak, but the wreck also ended the domination of the seas by the American maritime fleet for the rest of the nineteenth century. Utterly compelling, The Sea Shall Embrace Them is a stirring slice of heretofore little-known American history. Beautifully written, it puts the reader on deck as a ship full of men, women, and children do battle both with a mighty ocean and with their own baser instincts.

"To be a naturalist is better than to be a king."--William Beebe's journal, December 31, 1893William Beebe was a pioneer in the field of ecology, the father of deep-sea exploration, and an avid conservationist. This picture-book biography charts the life of this famous naturalist from his childhood studying animals in New Jersey through his later years studying birds at the research station he started in Trinidad.Back matter includes quotes from Beebe, a glossary of terms, and an illustrated cross section of the Bathysphere, which Beebe helped design.

This is the story of a 10 year girl who is rather quite and shy but very warm and friendly. Although she doesn't have many friends, she does have a wonderful doll collection. A collection of dolls that are known as The Cherished Friends. These dolls serve as Molly's only friends and companionship but when Molly finally gets the doll she was missing to complete her collection, the most amazing and incredible story and transformation takes place, transporting Molly from a shy and insecure child through all of life's lessons to arrive at a most magical place. Learning all important aspects of life, Molly finds strength, friendship, honesty and success through the guidance and wisdom of The Cherished Friends. A most magical adventure that anyone would love to live through.