A desire to become a professional pilot against the odds and without the benefit of wealthy relatives leads to a journey through some unusual jobs including theft investigator, car salesman, personal loans agent, telephone salesman and finance company repo man. When the opportunity to join an airline is abruptly halted by bureaucracy, a determination to continue flying results in an accidental career as one of the busiest oceanic ferry pilots in the world. Fly along on nine very different delivery flights and experience the literal highs and lows of these dangerously exciting journeys across our oceans. Read about flights from dirt tracks in Russia, fuel leaks in Iceland, mechanical issues in war-torn Africa, low fuel across the Pacific and flying through the waves of the Atlantic Ocean! Meet some of the people, the machines and the cultures encountered as a risky game against ever diminishing luck is played out in some of the most remote and lonely places on earth.

Some people have 14,000 Things to Be Happy About. You’re not one of them. 11,002 Things to Be Miserable About is a list of all the reasons NOT to wake up in the morning. Ironically enough, when you put all of them under one cover, it’s actually very funny. This decidedly absurd inventory of misery is perfect for sardonic and disaffected youth, for people seeking gifts for Traumatic Event Birthdays (like twenty-one, twenty-five, thirty, forty, and, well, anything after forty), and for anyone else with an offbeat sense of humor. Enjoy. Some of the entries are pretty basic, like imitation crabmeat, student loans, and David Hasselhoff, but other entries actually include educational things, like dust mites, which make up one-third of the weight of a six-year-old pillow. See, you can laugh and learn.

A talking watch. An overcoat for two. A pair of pants for poodles. In his companion to Weird & Wacky Inventions, Jim Murphy shows kids some additional baffling and utterly silly inventions in the form of a guessing game that is both challenging and fun. What is a finger-supporting device used for? Can you really buy that talking watch? What on earth is a beard grinder? Whether it’s a device for shaping the upper lip or a life preserver for horses, this parade of unusual inventions is a real treat for trivia lovers and any curious kid with an interest in science and inventions. Ages: 9–12.