You cannot separate Russians from their vodka or vodka from Russia. For over 600 years, this proud Slavic culture has - for good or ill - been inextricably bound up with their national drink. This has been expressed in literature, song, politics, history and every aspect of popular culture. In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex and rich portrait. In addition, most all of the hundreds of wonderful...

Rugby Stories...and other misadventures was incredibly enjoyable. I'm a bit of a history buff and the one area of American rugby history I always wanted to know more about was the period in the 1960s and 70s, when the Eagles were just formulating. The generation of players that came of age during that period is only getting old and some of the stories from that time are getting lost. The greatest triumph of "Rugby Stories" is that it preserves that part of history for future generations. Written by former Eagle, UCLA, and Santa Monica player Dave Stephenson, "Rugby Stories" offers a unique...

The Complete F&I Reference Book is no longer the only available 'handbook' on how to do the job of Finance and Insurance manager. Twenty years ago, this manual was found on the bookshelves of hundreds of dealerships across the country and used by F&I training programs everywhere, including Northwood University. However, it is still the only guide to applying the lessons of Neuro-Lingiistic Programming specifically to successful F&I sales. Since then, the car business has changed. Whole technologies, like the fax machine, have come and gone. Elite sales talent, which often found a home in...

The journey to discover one's self fails with the first step.

Gathered on the Northern California coast for a ten-year reunion, college friends begin to see signs that the worst geological disaster in history is about to hit the West Coast. In California, a major earthquake is a matter of when, not if. As we all learn eventually, we only see what we are prepared to see.

Powys, extending over north-east and central Wales, was one of three great medieval Welsh polities, along with Gwynedd to the north and Deheubarth (south-west), occupying nearly a quarter of the country. However, it has been somewhat neglected by historians, who have tended to dismiss it as a satellite realm of England, and viewed its leaders as obstacles to the efforts of Gwynedd leaders to construct a principality of Wales. This book provides the first full, authoritative history of Powys in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It argues in particular that the Powysian rulers were dogged...