Synopsis
There are no greater lovers of nature and adventure than the legendary RIVER OF DOUBT Rondon and Roosevelt. In 1914, Colonel Rondon had already covered vast regions of western Brazil, connecting the south to the north through the construction of the telegraph line and facing enormous trials. On the other hand, Roosevelt had been promoted to colonel after his heroic exploit in the US War against Spain in Cuba. He had been vice president and president of the United States and his spirit of adventure brought him together with Rondon for an unprecedented expedition to a never-before-explored river, the River of Doubt. This expedition was also tragic, with three deaths. Roosevelt almost lost his life and the sufferings shortened it considerably. Inspired by these heroic deeds, author Marc André Meyers retraced this journey a century later, starting at the Apa River, on the border with Paraguay, and ending at the mouth of the River of Doubt, renamed Roosevelt. Meyers and two Brazilian colonels, Hiram Reis e Silva and Ivan Carlos Angonese, formed the first team in a hundred years to remake the entire RooseveltRondon Scientific Expedition. They traveled by boat, on mule back, in kayaks and canoes, and on foot, using the same means of transport as the original expedition. In this trajectory, they crossed Pareci, Nambikwara, Zoró, and Cinta Larga territories, and were able to assess the environmental changes of the last hundred years and, especially, the deforestation. This book is a blend of the travel journal and anthropological, historical, and biological material accounts. Travel with the author and his companions as they penetrate the forest, conquer the river, relive the dangers, witness the burning of the Amazon, and explore the past.

Synopsis
A ruthless mining company’s greed threatens a Yanomami Indian village as a guerrilla leader’s daughter vows to carry on his legacy in the adventure novel Yanomami.Berkeley student Natasha Chauny returns to Colombia’s San Vicente del Caguan to pay respects to her father, Comandante Paulo, after he’s assassinated. She reads his journals, which describe Paulo’s disenchantment with the FARC guerrilla movement and his newly discovered dedication to the Amazon Indians.After visiting her father’s former comrades, Natasha stops at a nearby Yanomami village bordering Brazil. Her visit coincides with a mining company’s plot to displace the Indians and mine a deposit of cassiterite worth millions of dollars without giving them a share.

 

Mercenaries and the Yanomami will clash—with the village’s future at stake. How much is Natasha willing to risk to follow in her father’s footsteps when the fighting begins?

Feel the Yanomami’s pleas for help as author Marc André Meyers, a distinguished professor of materials science at the University of California, San Diego, exposes the methods that mining companies use to take over native inhabitants’ lands. It’s an adventure worth reading and an up-close look at the dangers that the Yanomami face in South America.

Synopsis
C’ est l’épopée de la sidérurgie brésilienne qui est ici rapportée à travers cette histoire d’amour entre une simple femme originaire de Minas et un pionnier luxembourgeois de la sidérurgie, fils illégitime d’un aristocrate et de sa servante. La Première Guerre mondiale en constitue la toile de fond initiale. Le père du protagoniste, Jacques Esch, est mort sur un champ de bataille en France. Fraîchement formé à l’université d’Aixla-Chapelle, le jeune homme arrive au Brésil en 1925. Il a 30 ans. Les énormes réserves de minerai de fer de Minas Gerais vont conduire à l’implantation d’un groupe belgo-luxembourgeois au Brésil. Dans les années 30, la crise mondiale amène l’ARBED à demander la fermeture de l’usine de Sabará, l’ancien siège de la Companhia Siderúrgica Mineira. Passionné du Brésil, Jacques n’obtempère pas et parvient à engager des fonds de banques brésiliennes afin de maintenir la société à flot. Il voue tous ses rêves et toute son énergie à l’usine de Monlevade qui va devenir la première usine sidérurgique intégrée d’Amérique latine, véritable pépinière à métallurgistes. À cinquante ans, il s’éprend d’une Brésilienne, une femme mariée au passé trouble, défiant ainsi les conventions sociales et morales de son temps. Jacques et Leontina coulent des jours heureux et connaissent la gloire avec le succès et l’expansion de l’usine. Leurs projets vont attiser la jalousie de ceux qui veulent brider leurs ambitions. L’issue de leur histoire est tragique, mais l’amour entre ces deux êtres si dissemblables est un vibrant hommage au pouvoir des rêves.

Synopsis
It is the epic of the steel industry in Brazil, reported here through this story of love between a Brazilian woman, native of Minas Gerais, and the Luxembourgish pioneer of the steel industry in Brazil, illegitimate son an aristocrat and his servant. The First World War is the initial backdrop of this saga. The father of the protagonist, Jacques Esch, dies on a battlefield in France. Freshly graduated from the University of Aachen, the young man arrives in Brazil in 1925. He is 30 years old. Attracted by the huge iron ore reserves in Minas Gerais, the Belgian-Luxembourg group Arbed invests in Brazil. In the 30s, the global crisis forces Arbed to request closure of the Sabará, plant,former headquarters of Companhia Siderúrgica Mineira. Passionate of Brazil, Jacques does not comply and manages to obtain funds from Brazilian banks to keep the company afloat. He dedicates all his dreams and all his energy to a new project, the modern plant of Monlevade. It will become the first integrated steel plant in Latin America, a real university of metallurgists. At fifty, he falls in love with a woman of troubled past, defying social conventions and morals of his time. Jacques and Leontina live happiness and enjoy glory with the success and expansion of their projects. Their ambitions stir jealousy of those who want bridle their ambitions. The outcome of their story is tragic, but the love between these two beings, so dissimilar, is a vibrant tribute to the power of dreams.
(Click here for the French Translation)

Synopsis
The accidental discovery in New Mexico of a super explosive, a thousand times more powerful than conventional ones, sends assistant professor Jean-Claude Delvaux into a whirlwind of travel, passion, and discovery. Delvaux meets with tragedy in Chechnya, while taking part in its liberation struggle, and emerges broken-hearted from the rubble of Grozny, swearing off violence. Destiny strikes again when Delvaux is lured by love and loyalty around the world and into the new nexus of conflict, a brutal jihad in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Synopsis
Poetry has been a constant, if distant presence throughout the life of Marc Andre Meyers. It determined, by some tortuous path, his destiny, and impelled him into scientific research. The poems in Abscission/Implosion present the evolution of the author’s thoughts and dreams, from late childhood to mature adulthood. The themes of love, justice, honor permeate these poems that have a sensuality that is clearly Latin American, tempered perhaps with North American self-assuredness. They are easily readable and contain little of the hermeticism of many contemporary literary convolutions. A feast for the senses!

Synopsis
Gustavo Chen is recently widowed and trying to forget his past, he escapes into his teaching and aerospace research and obsessively surfs the La Jolla waves on his time off. An affair with a sexy young student and a mysterious job offer lead him into a world of industrial secrets, indigenous beliefs, and a microscopic extraterrestrial life-form that threatens worldwide disaster. Journey from the mystical rain forests of the Yucatan to the sunny beaches of San Diego, and across the ocean to Japan in this thrilling science fiction adventure the story of one man’s attempt to stop mutated Martian viruses from coming to earth in the form of a killer plague. Spanning the centuries from 500 AD to the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012, Mayan Mars is an intricate tale of seduction, deception, revenge, and undying love.