{"title":"Ken McAlpine","description":"Ken McAlpine is an award-winning travel writer whose work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Outside, Reader's Digest, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of Off-Season: Discovering America on Winter's Shore. He lives with his family in Ventura, California.","products":[{"product_id":"islands-apart-a-year-on-the-edge-of-civilization-paperback","title":"Islands Apart: A Year on the Edge of Civilization - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eAuthor Ken McAlpine stands in his front yard one night in Ventura, California, trying to see the stars. His view is diminished by light pollution, making it hard to see much of anything in the sky. Our fast-paced, technologically advanced society, he concludes, is not conducive to stargazing or soul-searching. Taking a page from Thoreau's \u003ci\u003eWalden\u003c\/i\u003e, he decides to get away from the clamor of everyday life, journeying alone through California's Channel Islands National Park. There, he imagines, he might be able to \"breathe slowly and think clearly, to examine how we live and what we live for.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn between his week-long solo trips through these pristine islands, McAlpine reaches out to try to better understand his fellow man: he eats lunch with the homeless in Beverly Hills, sits in the desert with a 98-year-old Benedictine monk, and befriends a sidewalk celebrity impersonator in Hollywood. What he discovers about himself and the world we live in will inspire anyone who wishes they had the time to slow down and notice the wonders of nature and humanity.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51382639427807,"sku":"9781590305300","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/GV9az2vmmv9781590305300.webp?v=1789290457"},{"product_id":"nexus-paperback-2","title":"Nexus - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eSurvival. You read the word in comfort. Merely a word on a page. But the day is coming when you may meet its black-eyed stare. Young Justin Mahoney - strangely attuned to the sea, and perhaps mankind's greatest hope for survival -- returns in this sequel to the unforgettable Juncture. Reluctant prophet, Justin is joined by characters beloved and new: Marty Haruo, broken-hearted bagpipe player; Amber Giles, beautiful and bright; Jimmy Maas, apex hunter, and biologist Lacey Goodenall, sharp-tongued, strong-willed and grounded in science, until she's faced with a world rapidly moving beyond anything we know. Now nothing is a given. Change is the only truth. And now, not one, but five prehistoric beings; mother and offspring. Mankind's saviors, or the horsemen of our Apocalypse. In the sapphire blue waters of the tropical paradise of Palau, along the holiday coast of Queensland, off the summertime Outer Banks of North Carolina; everywhere, sea stirrings that are clear warnings. Everywhere, largely ignored. Water whispers a lullaby, but it can also scream. A heart-stopping thriller that may not be fiction at all. We are all connected to the sea.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67781272338655,"sku":"9780991033485","price":21.58,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/Ada2BjNuiK9780991033485.webp?v=1790689856"},{"product_id":"fog-paperback","title":"Fog - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen the Asia, a two-masted schooner, sinks in a storm along the harsh winter shores of Cape Cod in 1882, the crew, the captain, and the captain's young daughter are cast into the midnight sea. Swept ashore, the Asia's captain survives-only to meet a mysterious end before he can be rescued. Meanwhile, his child makes landfall and dies not far away. With dawn's arrival, all that remains are the jagged hulk of the Asia and the whispers of a secret. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSo begins a race to find a history-altering treasure-a contest that pits Daniel Cole, keeper of the lifesaving station, and his fellow Peaked Hill Bars lifesavers against a philosophical killer. This mooncusser, an author of shipwrecks, walks a stoic horse along the ridgeline of the Cape's towering beach cliffs, bending fate to his aims.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHope and despair, love and loss, sacrifice and sin, riddle and answer all blur and intertwine in a tale that calls into question the validity of humanity's moral compass and the very nature of progress and civilization.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":68182779592927,"sku":"9781469791661","price":17.23,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/Qx1NqTRQ-69781469791661.webp?v=1792522345"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/ken-mcalpine.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}