When I was a kid, participating in chain mail was a lot of work. You’d have to copy out the same letter 10 or so times, find 10 people’s addresses to send it to, package it all in envelopes and  add stamps. This would all be marched to the mailbox with a sense of pride and participation in some sort of global phenomenon.

Today,  the shine has largely worn off thanks to the advent of email and the cursed “forward” button,  so that’s why I was impressed to have just received — not half an hour ago — the infamous “Microsoft lawsuit/Bill Gates fortune/email beta testing” chain email. I haven’t received this one in years! It’s an oldie, but goodie: If you forward this to everyone — yes, everyone — in your mailbox, Microsoft will pay you $250 for each email sent because they a) need to test their system or b) are in some sort of dubious lawsuit or c) Bill Gates is feeling generous. At $250 an email this really adds up, the original sender (a “lawyer named Pearlas Sandborn”) sagely advises.

I love it that someone still earnestly forwarded this on, knowing full well that it’s a hoax but secretly hoping that, this time, maybe it will work.

KB

In the mid 1600s, legendary fur traders Radisson and des Groseilliers were the first Europeans to explore the upper part of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. This exciting book explains how their trade routes helped open up the mid-west of the United States and Canada and how their discoveries led to the creation of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the oldest corporation in North America.

For more information on this book, please visit the Crabtree Publishing website.

From 1964 to 1971, a growing obsession for cars with power and speed gave birth to a whole culture of cars and their owners. This mighty new book shows off the most exciting era in Detroit’s car-making history — the age of the muscle car. Although new emissions standards and oil conservation brought about the end of the muscle car era, its designs can still be seen in many of today’s cars….

For more information on this book, please visit the Crabtree Publishing website.

The first motorcycles were little more than bicycles with basic engines strapped onto them. Over time, these “bone shakers” have evolved into powerful, agile vehicles that riders take off-road and race in what have become some of the hottest new extreme sports of the last decade.

For more information on this book, please visit the Crabtree Publishing website.

To see a sample page, click here

Racy Maseratis, terrain-chewing Hummers, fancy stretch limousines — we all daydream about seeing ourselves in these flashy kinds of vehicles. This dynamic book showcases dream cars of all kinds, including sports cars, luxury cars, retro cars, and SUVs.

For more information about this book, please visit the Crabtree Publishing website.

This book tells the story of the relentless and at times tyrannical explorer Vasco da Gama who helped Portugal earn its reputation as the leader of the Age of Exploration. By the late 1400s, Portugal’s Prince Henry was looking for a way to expand Portuguese territory and gain access to the lucrative spice trade of the Far East. Vasco da Gama was at the forefront of this pursuit, leading three major expeditions to lands that Europeans had never explored.

For more information about this book, please see the Crabtree Publishing website.

In 1519, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan took five ships and 200 men on an epic journey around the world on behalf of Spain. This colorful book follows the world’s first circumnavigation by sail through a dramatic passage of disease, starvation, and death…

For more information on this book, please visit the Crabtree Publishing website.