Through hope and magic an abused girl creates a mighty sword that might someday be wielded by King Arthur. A short story from best-selling fantasy and Science Fiction author Allan Cole. Views: 60
Another hilarious adventure from bestselling author Danny Wallace, perfect for fans of David Walliams, Roald Dahl, David Baddiel and David Solomons! This may look like just a completely and utterly ordinary book. But it's not. This book knows something terrifying: that the people of Earth face their gravest, grimmest threat yet! When Hamish arrives home to find his mum and his brother lying flat on their backs ON THE CEILING, he knows there's something seriously wrong (again) in the town of Starkley. What is the strange burping noise he keeps hearing? Why are weird seeds suddenly falling from the sky? And should he be worried about the odd woman with a cone around her neck? All Hamish and his gang the PDF can be sure of is that an adventure is coming. And that means two things:You have to be preparedYou have to prepare a sandwich Views: 60
"Rick Brant and his pal Scotty have the kind of adventures everone would like to have. They live on an island called Spindrift where Rick's father heads a group of scientists. At home and abroad the boys encounter many thrilling adventures and solve many baffling mysteries"--P. 4 of cover Views: 60
This eBook is the famous speech by Martin L. King, Jr. made in 1963. Views: 60
"We owe profound thanks to Akashic Books for reissuing this important collection of Amiri Baraka's short stories. Baraka was, without question, the central figure of the Black Arts Movement, and was the most important theorist of that movement's expression of the 'Black Aesthetic,' which took hold of the African American cultural imagination in earnest in the late sixties. While known primarily for his plays, poems, and criticism of black music, Baraka was also a master of the short story form, as this collection attests. Tales first appeared in 1967 and is an impressionistic and sometimes surrealistic collection of short fiction, showcasing Amiri Baraka's great impact on African American literature of the 1950s and 1960s. Tales is a critical volume in Amiri Baraka's oeuvre, and an important testament to his remarkable literary legacy."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr."A clutch of early stories from the poet, playwright, and provocateur, infused with... Views: 60
This book is about the great moral issues underlying many of the headline-making political controversies of our times. It is not a comforting book but a book about disturbing and dangerous trends. The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies. Those consequences include the steady and dangerous erosion of fundamental principles of freedom -- amounting to a quiet repeal of the American revolution.The Quest for Cosmic Justice is the summation of a lifetime of study and thought about where we as a society are headed -- and why we need to change course before we do irretrievable damage. Views: 60
A vibrant collection of essays on the cosmos from the nation's best-known astrophysicist. Loyal readers of the monthly "Universe" essays in Natural History magazine have long recognized Neil deGrasse Tyson's talent for guiding them through the mysteries of the cosmos with stunning clarity and almost childlike enthusiasm. Here, Tyson compiles his favorite essays across a myriad of cosmic topics. The title essay introduces readers to the physics of black holes by explaining the gory details of what would happen to your body if you fell into one. "Holy Wars" examines the needless friction between science and religion in the context of historical conflicts. "The Search for Life in the Universe" explores astral life from the frontiers of astrobiology. And "Hollywood Nights" assails the movie industry's feeble efforts to get its night skies right. Known for his ability to blend content, accessibility, and humor, Tyson is a natural teacher who simplifies some of the most complex concepts in astrophysics while simultaneously sharing his infectious excitement about our universe. Views: 60
Libby is on a man-fast: no more romance, no more cheating men, no more heartbreak. After all, she has her three best girlfriends and two cats to keep her company at night and her high-powered job at the National Aboriginal Gallery in Canberra to occupy her day - isn't that enough? But when fate takes Libby to work in Paris at the Musée du Quai Branly, she's suddenly thrown out of her comfort zone and into a city full of culture, fashion and love. Surrounded by thousands of attentive men, nude poets, flirtatious baristas and smooth-tongued lotharios, romance has suddenly become a lot more tempting. On top of it all, there's a chauvinist colleague at the Musée who challenges Libby's professional ability and diplomatic skills. Then there's Libby's new friend Sorina, a young Roma gypsy, desperate to escape deportation. Libby must protect her work record and her friend, but can she protect herself from a broken heart? Views: 60
In autumn 1993 the Oslo Agreements were signed by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, marking the beginning of promise for a constructive peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The ten years that followed were charted first by hope and optimism only to deteriorate into revenge and violence. Throughout this decade David Grossman has published articles in the American and European press, written in a personal voice - father, husband, peace activist, novelist - as he witnesses devastating events, he cries out with a prophetic wisdom, imploring both sides to return to sanity, to negotiations. The publication of this collection of articles will mark ten years to the dream of Oslo. Views: 60
The landmark comic satire that asks, "What would happen if all black people in America turned white?" It's New Year's Day 1933 in New York City, and Max Disher, a young black man, has just found out that a certain Dr. Junius Crookman has discovered a mysterious process that allows people to bleach their skin white—a new way to "solve the American race problem." Max leaps at the opportunity, and after a brief stay at the Crookman Sanitarium, he becomes Matthew Fisher, a white man who's able to attain everything he's ever wanted: money, power, good liquor, and the white woman who rejected him when he was black. Lampooning myths of white supremacy and racial purity and caricaturing prominent African American leaders like W. E. B. Du Bois, Madam C. J. Walker, and Marcus Garvey, Black No More is a masterwork of speculative fiction and a hilarious satire of America's obsession with race. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher... Views: 60
Amazon.com ReviewThere's quite a bit of intelligent analysis and thought-provoking insight packed into the pages of Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, which is a little surprising considering how darn stupid most of Klosterman's subject matter actually is. Klosterman, one of the few members of the so-called "Generation X" to proudly embrace that label and the stereotypical image of disaffected slackers that often accompanies it, takes the reader on a witty and highly entertaining tour through portions of pop culture not usually subjected to analysis and presents his thoughts on Saved by the Bell, Billy Joel, amateur porn, MTV's The Real World, and much more. It would be easy in dealing with such subject matter to simply pile on some undergraduate level deconstruction, make a few jokes, and have yourself a clever little book. But Klosterman goes deeper than that, often employing his own life spent as a member of the lowbrow target demographic to measure the cultural impact of his subjects. While the book never quite lives up to the use of the word "manifesto" in the title (it's really more of a survey mixed with elements of memoir), there is much here to entertain and illuminate, particularly passages on the psychoses and motivations of breakfast cereal mascots, the difference between Celtic fans and Laker fans, and The Empire Strikes Back. Sections on a Guns n' Roses tribute band, The Sims, and soccer feel more like magazine pieces included to fill space than part of a cohesive whole. But when you're talking about a book based on a section of cultural history so reliant on a lack of attention span, even the incongruities feel somehow appropriate. --John MoeFrom Publishers WeeklyThere's a lot more cold cereal than sex or drugs in Klosterman's nostalgic, patchy collection of pop cultural essays, which, despite sparks of brilliance, fails to cohere. Having graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1994, Klosterman (Fargo Rock City) seems never to have left that time or place behind. He is an ironically self-aware, trivia-theorizing, unreconstructed slacker: "I'm a Gen Xer,' okay? And I buy shit marketed toGen Xers.' And I use air quotes when I talk.... Get over it." The essay topics speak for themselves: the Sims, The Real World, Say Anything, Pamela Anderson, Billy Joel, the Lakers/Celtics rivalry, etc. The closest Klosterman gets to the 21st century is Internet porn and the Dixie Chicks. This is a shame, because he's is a skilled prose stylist with a witty, twisted brain, a photo-perfect memory for entertainment trivia and has real chops as a memoirist. The book's best moments arrive when he eschews argumentation for personal history. In "George Will vs. Nick Hornby," a tired screed against soccer suddenly comes to life when Klosterman tells the story of how he was fired from his high school summer job as a Little League baseball coach. The mothers wanted their sons to have equal playing time; Klosterman wanted "a run-manufacturing offensive philosophy modeled after Whitey Herzog's St. Louis Cardinals." In a chapter on relationships, Klosterman semi-jokes that he only has "three and a half dates worth of material." Remove all the dated pop culture analyses, and Klosterman's book has enough material for about half a really great memoir.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 59
Political corruption, abortion, and dead body discovered inside a trunk at Hudson depot.The summer of 1871 in New York City is hot and humid. The city is gripped by two seemingly separate events. The first is the discovery of a beautiful young woman's body stuffed inside a trunk at the Hudson railway depot. The second involves Victor Fowler, grand sachem of Tammany Hall, and the Boss" of what is popularly referred to as The Ring." This is a small clique that includes Governor Dandy" Archibald Krupp, Fowler's man at the state assembly in Albany; Mayor Thomas The Prince" Emery, an opportunist of the worst variety; Slimy" Bob James, the cunning and sly city comptroller; and Isaac The Wizard" Harrison, the City Chamberlain, who is possibly the most treacherous of the Ring Rascals."In Evil of the Age, New York journalist Charles St. Clair, tracking down the story of Lucy Maloney, the kept woman" found murdered and... Views: 59
