On December 11, 1981, Muhammad Ali slumped on a chair in the cramped, windowless locker room of a municipal baseball field outside Nassau. A phalanx of sportswriters had pushed and shoved their way into this tiny, breeze-blocked space. In this most unlikely of settings, they had come to record the last moments of the most storied of all boxing careers. They had come to intrude upon the grief.It's over," mumbled Ali. It's over."The show that had entertained and wowed from Zaire to Dublin, from Hamburg to Manila, finally ended its twenty-one-year run, the last performance not so much off-Broadway, more amateur theatre in the boondocks.In Drama in the Bahamas, Dave Hannigan tells the occasionally poignant, often troubling, yet always entertaining story behind Ali's last bout. Through interviews with many of those involved, he discovers exactly how and why, a few weeks short of his fortieth birthday, a seriously diminished Ali stepped through the... Views: 389
"A Sister to Evangeline" is the story of Yvonne de Lamourie, and how she went into exile with the villagers of Grand Pré. Written in 1898, this novel is an early work by Canadian poet and prose writer, Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts (1860–1943), who regularly wrote as Charles G. D. Roberts and who is known as the Father of Canadian Poetry.
All books of the Literary Thoughts edition have been transscribed from original prints and edited for better reading experience. Views: 389
Hanich was too sickly, and was nearly too old to acquire an apprenticeship. So when he was offered a position in a soup kitchen in a run down neighborhood he thought it the most extraordinary thing he would ever experience. He was wrong. Welcome to the Kitchen, where comfort is offered, even to those in the most extraordinary of circumstances.A Christian Steampunk Experience1 The League of Red-Eyed GentlemenHanich was too sickly, and was nearly too old to acquire an apprenticeship. So when he was offered a position in a soup kitchen in a run down neighborhood he thought it the most extraordinary thing he would ever experience. He was wrong. Welcome to the Kitchen, where comfort is offered, even to those in the most extraordinary of circumstances.A Christian Steampunk ExperienceExtraordinary Situations is a story told in eleven episodes. Views: 389
Tate Halloway lives life to the fullest. She had a rough childhood and a rougher adolescence. Now that she’s away at school and on her own for the first time in her life, nothing can hold her back from making the most out of every single day. Well, just that one thing. But she refuses to think about it.Tate Halloway lives life to the fullest. She had a rough childhood and a rougher adolescence. Now that she’s away at school and on her own for the first time in her life, nothing can hold her back from making the most out of every single day. Well, just that one thing. But she refuses to think about it. And why would she, when life is so much more fun when you’re living it, experiencing every little thing. When she bumps into Bridger Wright, a childhood friend that was both a bully and a serious crush, she starts to see that not everyone thinks like her. She’s always had a thing for Bridger, but the guy she catches up with is a far cry from the little boy that used to put toads down her dress and pull her ponytails. She knows there’s more to Bridger than this sulking, disconnected version of him and she’s bound and determined to pull it out of him. Bridger Wright has been spurned in love more than once. He always seems to trust the wrong girls and end up with a broken heart. He’s tired of it. And he has resolved himself to a life without love. He believes he’s better off, if only he could convince Tate too. Tate bursts into Bridger’s life like sunlight through clouds. She’s vivacious, energetic and adventurous. But she’s not without secrets. Just as Bridger starts to open up to her demanding presence and the feelings he can’t seem to deny, his trust is broken again. Bridger and Tate are forced to face each other and the pain of their past. Neither wants to face their demons and deal with their hurt, but neither can deny the depth of their feelings for each other. Their brazing love will take work and sacrifice. Both are capable of giving to each other. Both will have to decide whether or not it’s worth it Views: 389
Ballyhussa boreen was potholed in winter and overgrown in summer, but it was home - and it possessed my young soul and my growing body.. I grew up there - and bits of me stayed there. In the hedges and furze bushes, in the groves and ploughed fields, in the streams and ponds. This chapbook is a tribute to that happy place of my youth.Home was at the end of a long, winding boreen in County Waterford in rural Ireland; The Comeragh mountains were a few miles in one direction, the roaring Atlantic ocean a similar distance in the other. Between the devil and the deep blue sea you might say.! The boreen was potholed in winter and overgrown in summer, but it was home - and it possessed my young soul and my growing body.. I grew up there - and bits of me stayed there. In the hedges and furze bushes, in the groves and ploughed fields, in the streams and ponds. This chapbook is a tribute to that happy place of my youth. Views: 389
Six years have passed since England’s King Charles II returned from exile to reclaim the throne, ushering in a new era of stability for his subjects.
Except for Elizabeth Milton. The daughter of notorious poet John Milton, Elizabeth has never known her place in this shifting world—except by her father’s side. By day she helps transcribe his latest masterpiece, the epic poem Paradise Lost, and by night she learns languages and sword fighting. Although she does not dare object, she suspects that he’s training her for a mission whose purpose she cannot fathom.
Until one night the reason becomes clear: the king’s men arrive at her family’s country home to arrest her father. Determined to save him, Elizabeth follows his one cryptic clue and journeys to Oxford, accompanied by her father’s mysterious young houseguest, Antonio Vivani, a darkly handsome Italian scientist who surprises her at every turn. Funny, brilliant, and passionate, Antonio seems just as determined to protect her father as she is—but can she trust him with her heart?
When the two discover that Milton has planted an explosive secret in the half-finished Paradise Lost—a secret the king and his aristocratic supporters are desperate to conceal—Elizabeth is faced with a devastating choice: cling to the shelter of her old life or risk cracking the code, unleashing a secret that could save her father…and tear apart the very fabric of society. Views: 389
Productivity is critical to your success at work. Business owners, managers and executives all want to get the most from their employees. If you’re not performing as efficiently or effectively as others, your long-term job prospects could be in trouble.Here are 25 best productivity tips, there so you get big things done.One can live for several weeks without food but only a few days without water, a fact that seventeen year old Niko is only too aware of as she struggles to provide for her two younger brothers in a post-apocalyptic landscape where the rain burns like acid, food grows scarce, and any Slither that crosses her path is laid low before it can sink its teeth into her.Then one night everything she's ever worked for, everything she's ever loved is consumed by a raging fire, leaving her with one brother dead, the other missing and herself gravely injured.She's rescued by the Rose Circle, a rogue group of Slither hunters. They sneak her into Amaryllis City, a decadent metropolis where those able to afford the exorbitant entrance fee live a life of relative ease.But for Niko, Amaryllis City is not the haven she grew up believing it would be, the deeper she delves the nastier it gets and when her unique abilities as a Slither hunter are discovered things get positively filthy.All Niko ever wanted to do was find her baby brother but that's proving to be harder than she ever would have expected. Views: 389
When Julius overthrew his mother and took control of his clan, he thought he was doing right by everyone. But sharing power isn’t part of any proper dragon’s vocabulary, and with one seat still open on the new ruling Council, all of Heartstriker is ready to do whatever it takes to get their claws on it, including killing the Nice Dragon who got them into this mess in the first place.
To keep his clan together and his skin intact, Julius is going to have to find a way to make his bloodthirsty siblings play fair. But there’s more going on in Heartstriker Mountain than politics. Every family has its secrets, but the skeletons in Bethesda’s closet are dragon sized, and with Algonquin’s war looming over them all, breaking his clan wide open might just be the only hope Julius has of saving it. Views: 389
From one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved storytellers of our time comes a major new collection of stories and verse "We each have our little triggers . . . things that wait for us in the dark corridors of our lives." So says Neil Gaiman in his introduction to Trigger Warning, a remarkable compendium of twenty-five stories and poems that explore the transformative power of imagination.In "Adventure Story"—a thematic companion to the #1 New York Times bestselling novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane—Gaiman ponders death and the ways in which people take their stories with them when they die. "A Calendar of Tales" is comprised of short pieces about the months of the year—stories of pirates and March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother's Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale "The Case of Death and Honey." Also included is... Views: 388
Stories Varied delve into the possibilities of woman’s life in the man’s world. While 'Ilaa’s Ire' takes one back to woman’s life and times in the Vedic age, ‘201’ Qualms depicts her predicament when torn between trust and duty. If “?” addresses woman’s marital stress in an alien land, 'Cupid’s Clue' is about her acting on a rebound in the native place. Even as 'Autumn Love' enables a woman to discover the void late in life, 'A Touchy Affair' renders her amenable to her man’s other woman well in time.Just as 'Love’s How’s That' inflames her old flame, 'A Hearty Turn' brings the female lesbian leanings to the fore. As 'Love Jihad' bridges lovers’ religious divide with a secular plank, 'Tenth Nook' creates a marital gulf on the material plane. If 'Eleventh Hour' is about woman’s lust for love, 'Twelfth Tale' underscores her quest for power.Book excerpt from 'Autumn Love' for a feel of its literary style -‘Is it a point of no return?’ she thought involuntarily
moving to the edge of the chair.
Reading his ‘have you forgotten about the castration?’
message, she sank into the chair thinking, ‘is it a lighthearted joke or as a
loaded message?’, and for a clue, began to recall the events of the year passed
by.
‘Oh, how my life had turned on its head when I turned
fifty?’ she thought in wonderment. ‘That’s when I immunized my heart against
attractions and insulated my life from vacillations! So I believed, didn’t I?
But when he enamored my heart to give a flirty spin to my life, didn’t it dawn
upon me that I had only sterilized it for a ritual regimen, and no more. Oh,
how his first glance pierced my heart to stir my life that very instant!’
Returning from a temple when she found him alone in the
drawing room, she felt as if god had sent his angle to receive her in her own
abode. The moment their eyes met, it was as if they began their joint search
for a love ground to share, which they had to abandon as her husband entered
the scene from behind the curtain.
He was a friend of her husband’s childhood pal settled in
the States. Having spent the best part of his life there, he came back with his
wife for good, leaving their two children, who were US citizens. That was six
months back and they had since settled in Hyderabad, where, incidentally, both
her married daughters stayed. As he happened to be in their town alone, to
explore some business opportunities there, that evening, he came to call on her
husband at their common-friend’s behest. Introductions over, as her husband
wanted her to prepare some coffee for them; she went into the kitchen with a
heavy heart.
‘While my missing his sight had understandably irked me,
didn’t the thought that he too would miss my sight inexplicably hurt me?’ she
began reminiscing about that dream encounter. ‘But then, how the smell of the
boiling decoction lifted my spirits for it portended serving him some steamy
coffee with my own hands. When he said he never tasted anything better, how I
hoped he would leave some dregs for my palate to share his satisfaction. What a
disappointment it was seeing him empty the cup and how exhilarated I was when
he said he had broken his life-long habit of leaving the dregs. Then, as he was
preparing to leave, how depressed I was, but how relieved I was when my husband
invited him to visit us again!’
She got up from the chair and as if to walk down the memory
lane, she walked up to the compound gate. Views: 388
