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Monk's Travels: People, Places, and Events
by Edward A. MalloyA memoir of adventures around the world, meetings with famous figures, and journeys both physical and spiritual, from a former president of Notre Dame.Anne Tyler wrote a novel called The Accidental Tourist about a man who is forced to travel but does not want to have any new experiences...My goal on my trips has been just the opposite: not to do anything too foolish, but to be open to an endless round of new experiences and possibilities . . .Father Edward Malloy never planned to share his trip diaries with readers throughout the world. Affectionately known as “Monk,” the president of the University of Notre Dame just wanted to record where he went, what he saw, and whom he met along the way. But good reading attracts readers, and good travel writing takes those readers along on the journey. Both apply to Monk’s Travels.Carrying readers to destinations ranging from New York just after September 11, 2001, to Europe, the Mediterranean, Latin America, Africa, and the Far East, Monk meets and experiences the local residents and their customs. But he also comes in contact with such notable personalities as Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush, Martin Luther King Jr., Pope John Paul II, and Taiwanese Premier Lien Chen and President Lee Teng-Hui. His reportage of these places and personages opens the world to readers of all faiths and interests. Monk’s Travels shares its creator’s personality, hopes, spirituality, and emotions—and will interest anyone curious about higher education, Catholicism, travel, or recent history.Includes photographs
Monkey House Blues: A Shanghai Prison Memoir
by Dominic StevensonIn 1993, Dominic Stevenson left a comfortable life with his girlfriend in Kyoto, Japan, to travel to China. His journey took him to some of the most inhospitable and dangerous places in the world, from the poppy fields of the Afghan-Pakistan border to the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road, before he was arrested for drug smuggling while boarding a boat from Shanghai to Japan. After eight months on remand in a Chinese police lock-up, Stevenson was sentenced to two and a half years in one of the biggest prisons in the world, the Shanghai Municipal Prison aka 'The Monkey House'. There, he was imprisoned alongside just five westerners amongst five thousand Chinese criminals in a block for death row inmates and political prisoners, where the guards drank green tea and let the prison run itself. The experience led him to reflect on his previous life in Japan, India and Thailand, during which time he took on a varied array of jobs, including English teacher, karaoke-bar host, factory worker, busker, crystal seller and dope smuggler. From Afghan gun shops to Tibetan monasteries, Thai brothels and the stirrings of the rave culture in Goa, Monkey House Blues is a tale of discovery and rediscovery, of friendship and betrayal.
Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety
by Daniel SmithAnxiety once paralyzed Daniel Smith over a roast beef sandwich, convincing him that a choice between ketchup and barbeque sauce was as dire as that between life and death. It has caused him to chew his cuticles until they bled, wear sweat pads in his armpits, and confess his sexual problems to his psychotherapist mother. It has dogged his days, threatened his sanity, and ruined his relationships. <P><P>In Monkey Mind, Smith articulates what it is like to live with anxiety, defanging the disease with humor, traveling through its demonic layers, and evocatively expressing its self-destructive absurdities and painful internal coherence. With honesty and wit, he exposes anxiety as a pudgy, weak-willed wizard behind a curtain of dread and tames what has always seemed to him, and to the tens of millions of others who suffer from anxiety, a terrible affliction.
Monks and Mystics: Chronicles of the Medieval Church (History Lives #2)
by Mindy Withrow Brandon Withrow<p>Let history come to life - just the way it should be. <p>Read the stories of Gregory the Great, Boniface, Charlemagne, Constantine Methodius, Vladimir, Anselm of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Sienna, John Wyclif and John Hus.</p>
Monodies and On the Relics of Saints
by Jay Rubenstein Guibert Of Nogent Joseph McalhanyThe first Western autobiography since Augustine's Confessions, the Monodies is set against the backdrop of the First Crusade and offers stunning insights into medieval society. As Guibert of Nogent intimately recounts his early years, monastic life, and the bloody uprising at Laon in 1112, we witness a world-and a mind-populated by royals, heretics, nuns, witches, and devils, and come to understand just how fervently he was preoccupied with sin, sexuality, the afterlife, and the dark arts. Exotic, disquieting, and illuminating, the Monodies is a work in which the dreams, fears, and superstitions of one man illuminate the psychology of an entire people. It is joined in this volume by On the Relics of Saints, a theological manifesto that has never appeared in English until now.
Monopolizing the Master
by Michael AneskoHenry James defied posterity to disturb his bones: he was adamant that his legacy be based exclusively on his publications and that his private life and writings remain forever private. Despite this, almost immediately after his death in 1916 an intense struggle began among his family and his literary disciples to control his posthumous reputation, a struggle that was continued by later generations of critics and biographers. Monopolizing the Master gives a blow-by-blow account of this conflict, which aroused intense feelings of jealousy, suspicion, and proprietorship among those who claimed to be the just custodians of James's literary legacy. With an unprecedented amount of new evidence now available, Michael Anesko reveals the remarkable social, political, and sexual intrigue that inspired—and influenced—the deliberate construction of the Legend of the Master.
Mons, Anzac and Kut: A British Intelligence Officer In Three Theatres Of The First World War, 1914-18
by Aubrey HerbertA brilliant British memoir from three different theatres of the First World War; widely regarded as one of the finest written during the early period after the war. Despite being badly short-sighted, the author wished to serve his country with a passion and started off his military carrier as an interpreter. However, it wasn't long before he found himself in the thick of the fighting in 1914. At the forefront, in the confused fighting around Mons as the British turned at bay, he was wounded and captured. In a throwback to earlier days of chivalry, he was exchanged for a German prisoner of equal rank and standing.Out of the frying pan and into the fire of Gallipoli, Herbert writes passionately of the experiences and suffering of his fellow Allied soldiers, but he is characteristically self-depreciating of his own heroic conduct under the shellfire. After the end of the campaign in the Dardanelles, the author was posted out to Mesopotamia as an intelligence officer, ending his military career."Fascinating, straightforward, and very well written, best on Mons and Gallipoli." - p. 120, Edward Lengel, World War I Memories, 2004, The Scarecrow Press, Lanham Maryland, Toronto, Oxford. Author - Herbert, Aubrey, 1880-1923.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in London, E. Arnold, 1919.Original Page Count - 251 pages.Illustrations -- 4 maps.
Mons, Anzac and Kut: By an MP (Lieutenant Colonel The Hon Aubrey Herbert MP)
by Edward MelotteAubrey Herbert was one of the most interesting figures of his age. He was twice offered the Albanian throne! Born almost blind, his sight even after surgery precluded him from official military service and he became a diplomat and politician. However in 1914 he attached himself unofficially to the Irish Guards on the outbreak of war on their way to France and was made an honorary Lieutenant. Despite his service overseas in France, the Dardanelles and then Egypt and Iraq, he remained an MP throughout the War. He was briefly captured in the Retreat from Mons and, after recovering from his wounds, he joined the Intelligence Bureau in Egypt before being attached to the New Zealand and Australian Division at Gallipoli. He personally persuaded General Ian Hamilton, the overall Commander, to agree a temporary truce with the Turks to enable the burial of the dead and the recovery of wounded men in no-mans-land. Later in Iraq, his efforts to buy the release of the beleaguered British garrison at Kut were less successful. His extraordinary war experiences brought him into close contact with a wide cast of characters, not least T E Lawrence, Compton McKenzie and leading military and political figures.
Monsieur Mediocre: One American Learns the High Art of Being Everyday French
by John von SothenA hilarious, candid account of what life in France is actually like, from a writer for Vanity Fair and GQAmericans love to love Paris. We buy books about how the French parent, why French women don't get fat, and how to be Parisian wherever you are. While our work hours increase every year, we think longingly of the six weeks of vacation the French enjoy, imagining them at the seaside in stripes with plates of fruits de mer.John von Sothen fell in love with Paris through the stories his mother told of her year spent there as a student. And then, after falling for and marrying a French waitress he met in New York, von Sothen moved to Paris. But fifteen years in, he's finally ready to admit his mother's Paris is mostly a fantasy. In this hilarious and delightful collection of essays, von Sothen walks us through real life in Paris--not only myth-busting our Parisian daydreams but also revealing the inimitable and too often invisible pleasures of family life abroad. Relentlessly funny and full of incisive observations, Monsieur Mediocre is ultimately a love letter to France--to its absurdities, its history, its ideals--but it's a very French love letter: frank, smoky, unsentimental. It is a clear-eyed ode to a beautiful, complex, contradictory country from someone who both eagerly and grudgingly calls it home.
Monsieur Proust
by Barbara Bray André Aciman Céleste AlbaretCéleste Albaret was Marcel Proust's housekeeper in his last years, when he retreated from the world to devote himself to In Search of Lost Time. She could imitate his voice to perfection, and Proust himself said to her, "You know everything about me." Her reminiscences of her employer present an intimate picture of the daily life of a great writer who was also a deeply peculiar man, while Madame Albaret herself proves to be a shrewd and engaging companion.
Monsieur Proust's Library
by Anka MuhlsteinReading was so important to Marcel Proust that it sometimes seems he was unable to create a personage without a book in hand. Everybody in his work reads: servants and masters, children and parents, artists and physicians. The more sophisticated characters find it natural to speak in quotations. Proust made literary taste a means of defining personalities and gave literature an actual role to play in his novels. In this wonderfully entertaining book, scholar and biographer Anka Muhlstein, the author of Balzac's Omelette, draws out these themes in Proust's work and life, thus providing not only a friendly introduction to the momentous In Search of Lost Time, but also exciting highlights of some of the finest work in French literature.
Monsieur de Saint-George: Virtuoso, Swordsman, Revolutionary: A Legendary Life Rediscovered
by Alain GuédéThe first full biography of one of the greatest figures of eighteenth-century Europe, known in his time as the "Black Mozart"Virtually forgotten until now, his life is the stuff of legend. Born in 1739 in Guadeloupe to a slave mother and a French noble father, he became the finest swordsman of his age, an insider at the doomed court of Louis XVI, and, most of all, a virtuosic musician. A violinist, he directed the Olympic Society of Concerts, which was considered the finest in Europe in an age of great musicians, including Haydn, from whom he commissioned a symphony, and Mozart, to whom he was often compared. He also became the first Freemason of color, embracing the French Revolution with the belief that it would end the racism against which-despite his illustrious achievements-he struggled his whole life. This is the life of Joseph Bologne, known variously as Monsieur de Saint-George, the "Black Mozart," and, because of his origins, "the American." Alain Guédé offers a fascinating account of this extraordinary individual, whose musical compositions are at long last being revived and whose story will never again be forgotten.
Monsoon Diary
by Shoba NarayanIn the tradition of LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE, a sumptuous, mouth-watering memoir of growing up in India and bridging two cultures in America confirms a central truth: life is lived in the kitchen. In MONSOON DIARY Narayan seamlessly interweaves stories of her life on both sides of the globe with the memorable meals that have punctuated it. Tantalising recipes for potato masala, coconut chutney, sweet idlis (juicy rice and lentil dumplings) and other culinary delights emerge from tales that are as varied as Indian spices: of her childhood in Madras, her college days in America, her arranged marriage to a man she grew to love, and visits to her New York home from her delightfully eccentric family. A loving homage to Indian culture and cuisine, as well as the power of food to break through any barrier, Narayan's memoir is populated with unforgettable characters like Narayan's irrepressible father, the milkman Raju (who names his beloved cows after his wives), a New York city taxi driver who insists his wife prepare a 'proper' Indian meal for a homesick Shoba and the iron-man who daily sets up shop in her front yard, picking up red hot coals in his bare hands. In fact MONSOON DIARY's extended family is so vividly and affectionately detailed that you feel you could drop in for idlis and coffee if you were ever in Madras, Kerala, New York or Florida.
Monster Loyalty
by Jackie Huba"WE IDENTIFY WITH EACH OTHER. I SEE MYSELF IN MY FANS AND MY FANS SEE THEMSELVES IN ME. I CALL THEM LITTLE MONSTERS BECAUSE THEY ARE MY INSPIRATION. ” -LADY GAGA Famous for her avant-garde outfits, over-the-top performances, and addictive dance beats, Lady Gaga is one of the most successful pop musicians of all time. But behind her showmanship lies another achievement: her wildly successful strategy for attracting and keeping insanely loyal fans. She’s one of the most popular social media voices in the world with more than 33 million Twitter followers and 55 million Facebook fans. And she got there by methodically building a grassroots base of what she calls her "Little Monsters”-passionate fans who look to her not just for music but also for joy, inspiration, and a sense of community. In Monster Loyalty marketing expert Jackie Huba explores Gaga’s biography and fan philosophy and isolates the seven lessons any business can learn from her. For instance... Focus on your One Percenters: Lady Gaga is investing today in the audience she hopes to have twenty-five years from now. She spends most of her efforts on just 1 percent of her base, the highly engaged superfans who spread her message. Lead with values: Gaga stands out not just for her music but also for her message that it’s okay to be yourself and to love others for who they are. When you connect with customers beyond just providing a product or service, you create a lasting bond. Give them something to talk about: Whether she’s wearing a meat dress or delivering jaw-dropping performances, Lady Gaga knows what will get people talking. Making your business word-of-mouth-worthy cuts down on advertising costs and spreads buzz faster than anything else. Love her or hate her, you can’t ignore Lady Gaga. And while not all businesses want to stand out the way she does, any business can win big by creating monster loyalty. .
Monster of the Midway: Bronko Nagurski, the 1943 Chicago Bears, and the Greatest Comeback Ever
by Jim DentJim Dent's Monster of the Midway is the story of football's fiercest competitor, the legendary Bronko Nagurski. From his discovery in the middle of a Minnesota field to his 1943 comeback season at Wrigley, from the University of Minnesota to the Hall of Fame, Bronko Nagurksi's life is a story of grit, hard work, passion, and, above all, an unstoppable drive to win.Monster of the Midway recounts Nagurski's unparalleled triumphs during the 1930s and '40s, when the Chicago Bears were the kings of professional football. From 1930, the Bronk's first year, through 1943, his last, the Bears won five NFL titles and played in four other NFL Championship Games. Focusing on Nagurski's 1943 comeback season, and how he miraculously led the Bears to their fourth NFL championship against the backdrop of World War II era Chicago, Jim Dent uncovers the riveting drama of Nagurski's playing days. His efforts were the stuff of legend, and his success in 1943 accomplished in spite of a battered frame, worn-out knees, multiple cracked ribs, and a broken bone in his lower back. While chronicling the drama of the '43 championship chase, Dent also tells of both the Bears' colorful early years and Bronko's improbable rise to fame from the backwoods of northern Minnesota. Woven into the narrative are the sights and smells and sounds of one of the most romantic, flavorful eras of the twentieth century. And laced through it all are stories of legend: Bronko rubbing shoulders with colorful characters like George Halas, Red Grange, Sid Luckman, and Sammy Baugh; Bronko running into (and breaking) the brick wall at Wrigley Field; Bronko winning All-American spots for two positions; Bronko knocking scores of opponents unconscious; and Bronko reaching the heights of football glory and, with rare grace, turning his back on the game after winning his last championship.Rich in unforgettable stories and scenes, this is Jim Dent's account of Bronko Nagurski-arguably the greatest football player who ever lived-and his teammates, the roughest, toughest, rowdiest group of players ever to don leather helmets, and the original Monsters of the Midway.
Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction
by Melanie R. Anderson Lisa KrögerMeet the women writers who defied convention to craft some of literature’s strangest tales, from Frankenstein to The Haunting of Hill House and beyond. Frankenstein was just the beginning: horror stories and other weird fiction wouldn’t exist without the women who created it. From Gothic ghost stories to psychological horror to science fiction, women have been primary architects of speculative literature of all sorts. And their own life stories are as intriguing as their fiction. Everyone knows about Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein, who was rumored to keep her late husband’s heart in her desk drawer. But have you heard of Margaret “Mad Madge” Cavendish, who wrote a science-fiction epic 150 years earlier (and liked to wear topless gowns to the theater)? If you know the astounding work of Shirley Jackson, whose novel The Haunting of Hill House was reinvented as a Netflix series, then try the psychological hauntings of Violet Paget, who was openly involved in long-term romantic relationships with women in the Victorian era. You’ll meet celebrated icons (Ann Radcliffe, V. C. Andrews), forgotten wordsmiths (Eli Colter, Ruby Jean Jensen), and today’s vanguard (Helen Oyeyemi). Curated reading lists point you to their most spine-chilling tales.Part biography, part reader’s guide, the engaging write-ups and detailed reading lists will introduce you to more than a hundred authors and over two hundred of their mysterious and spooky novels, novellas, and stories.
Monster: Monsters Of Advanced Fighting Fantasy
by Steve JacksonAn account of serial killer Tom Luther that&’s &“one of the best books short of the famous Ann Rule works&” from the New York Times bestselling author (True Crime Book Reviews). On a snowy winter evening in 1982, twenty-one-year-old Mary Brown accepted a ride from a handsome stranger in the resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado. The trip ended with her brutally beaten and raped. Mary survived, but her predator&’s violence had only just begun. After ten years in prison, Tom Luther was released a far more vicious criminal. Soon, from the Rockies to West Virginia, like Ted Bundy, Luther enticed a chain of women into his murderous trap. In this gripping new edition of a true crime masterpiece, acclaimed author Steve Jackson recounts the intriguing pursuit and long-awaited conviction of a charismatic, monstrous psychopath, one who remains a suspect in three other crimes—and has never given up hope of escape.Includes sixteen pages of dramatic photosPraise for Steve Jackson &“He writes with both muscle and heart.&” —Gregg Olsen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of If You Tell &“A born storyteller. He makes you sweat . . . and turn the page.&” —Ron Franscell, national bestselling author of Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story
Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member
by Sanyika ShakurI have lived in South Central Los Angeles all my life. I grew up on Florence and Normandie. That is part of my territory. I was recruited into the Crips at the ripe old age of eleven. Today I am twenty-nine years old. I am a gang expert-period. There are no other gang experts except participants. Our lives, mores, customs, and philosophies remain as mysterious and untouched as those of any "uncivilized" tribe in Afrika. I have come full circle in my twenty-nine years on this planet, sixteen of those with the Crips. I have pushed people violently out of this existence and have fathered three children. I have felt completely free and have sat in total solitary confinement in San Quentin state prison. I have shot numerous people and have been shot seven times myself. I have been in gunfights in South Central and knife fights in Folsom state prison. Today, I languish at the bottom of one of the strictest maximum-security state prisons in this country. I propose to take my reader through the life and times of my own chilling involvement as a gang member with the Crips. I propose to open my mind as wide as possible to allow my readers the first ever glimpse at South Central from my side of the gun, street, fence, and wall. From my initial attraction and recruitment to my first shooting and my rise to Ghetto Star (ghetto celebrity) status, right up to the South Central rebellion and the truce between the warring factions-the Crips and Bloods. Although no longer aligned with gang or criminal activity, I still draw a great deal of support from this quarter. Come with me then, if you will, down a side street lined with stolen cars and youngsters armed with shotguns and .38 revolvers, lying in wait for the enemy, all members of a small gang. Then return with me five years later as the street is lined with luxury cars, dope dealers, and troops with AK-47 assault weapons, the gang now an army.
Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member
by Sanyika ShakurThe classic memoir of life as a Crip, written in solitary confinement: “A shockingly raw, frightening portrait of gang life in South Central Los Angeles.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York TimesAfter pumping eight blasts from a sawed-off shotgun at a group of rival gang members, twelve-year-old Kody Scott was initiated into the L.A. gang the Crips. He quickly matured into one of the most formidable Crip combat soldiers, earning the name “Monster” for committing acts of brutal violence that repulsed even his fellow gang members.When the inevitable jail term confined him to a maximum-security cell, a complete political and personal transformation followed: from Monster to Sanyika Shakur, black nationalist, member of the New Afrikan Independence Movement, and crusader against the causes of gangsterism. In a work that has been compared to The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice, Shakur makes palpable the despair and decay of America’s inner cities and gives eloquent voice to one aspect of the black ghetto experience.
Monster: The Story of a Young Mary Shelley
by M. R. ArnoldA fictionalized autobiography of the woman who wrote Frankenstein. Two centuries ago, a twenty-year-old woman invented science fiction. Her father gave her a better education than any woman of the age could hope for—and made her the victim of ongoing incest. At fifteen, she became involved with one of the greatest poets in England and made love to him on her mother&’s grave. When she was sixteen, she escaped from home by running away for a six-week walking tour of Europe, and shared Percy Bysshe Shelley with her sister. And her mentor, Lord Byron, challenged her to prove she was as good a writer as the best poet-philosophers of the Enlightenment. Both men admired her mind, and both wanted more. She would publish a book that changed the world—and this historical novel imagines her inner life as a woman far ahead of her time.
Monsters Of Death Row
by Christopher Berry-Dee Anthony Gordon BrownFrom the cells of Death Row come the chilling, true-life accounts of the most heinous, cruel and depraved killers of modern times. Meet grisly killers such as Bill Joe Benefiel, the 'Superglue Monster', who glued his victims eyes and noses shut, causing them to suffocate. Or Willie Crain, the deviant fisherman, who put his victim into a lobster pot, where it was eaten by sea creatures.Many prisoners on ' the Row' have carried out serial murder, mass murder, spree killing and the desmemberment of bodies - both dead and alive. In these pages are to be found friends who have stabbed, hacked and ever filleted their victims. So meet the 'Dead Men and Women Walking' from the legion of the damned in the most terrifying true crime read ever.
Monsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes: Essays on Motherhood (Essais Series #16)
by Adrienne GruberMonsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes is a revelatory collection of personal essays that subverts the stereotypes and transcends the platitudes of family life to examine motherhood with blistering insight.Documenting the birth and early life of her three daughters, Adrienne Gruber shares what it really means to use one’s body to bring another life into the world and the lasting ramifications of that act on both parent and child. Each piece peers into the seemingly mundane to show us the mortal and emotional consequences of maternal bonds, placing experiences of “being a mom” within broader contexts—historical, literary, biological, and psychological—to speak to the ugly realities of parenthood often omitted from mainstream conversations.Ultimately, this deeply moving, graceful collection forces us to consider how close we are to death, even in the most average of moments, and how beauty is a necessary celebration amidst the chaos of being alive.
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma
by Claire DedererA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A timely, passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of cancel culture, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. Can we love the work of controversial classic and contemporary artists but dislike the artist?"A lively, personal exploration of how one might think about the art of those who do bad things" —Vanity Fair • "[Dederer] breaks new ground, making a complex cultural conversation feel brand new." —Ada Calhoun, author of Also a Poet From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, Monsters is &“part memoir, part treatise, and all treat&” (The New York Times). This unflinching, deeply personal book expands on Claire Dederer&’s instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?" Can we love the work of artists such as Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Miles Davis, Polanski, or Picasso? Should we? Dederer explores the audience's relationship with artists from Michael Jackson to Virginia Woolf, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. Does genius deserve special dispensation? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss? Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.&“Monsters leaves us with Dederer&’s passionate commitment to the artists whose work most matters to her, and a framework to address these questions about the artists who matter most to us." —The Washington PostA Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Vulture, Elle, Esquire, Kirkus
Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football
by Rich CohenMonsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football is the New York Times bestselling gripping account of a once-in-a-lifetime team and their lone Super Bowl season. For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the 1985 Chicago Bears were more than a football team: they were the greatest football team ever—a gang of colorful nuts, dancing and pounding their way to victory. They won a Super Bowl and saved a city. It was not just that the Monsters of the Midway won, but how they did it. On offense, there was high-stepping running back Walter Payton and Punky QB Jim McMahon, who had a knack for pissing off Coach Mike Ditka as he made his way to the end zone. On defense, there was the 46: a revolutionary, quarterback-concussing scheme cooked up by Buddy Ryan and ruthlessly implemented by Hall of Famers such as Dan "Danimal" Hampton and "Samurai" Mike Singletary. On the sidelines, in the locker rooms, and in bars, there was the never-ending soap opera: the coach and the quarterback bickering on TV, Ditka and Ryan nearly coming to blows in the Orange Bowl, the players recording the "Super Bowl Shuffle" video the morning after the season's only loss. Cohen tracked down the coaches and players from this iconic team and asked them everything he has always wanted to know: What's it like to win? What's it like to lose? Do you really hate the guys on the other side? Were you ever scared? What do you think as you lie broken on the field? How do you go on after you have lived your dream but life has not ended? The result is Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football, a portrait not merely of a team but of a city and a game: its history, its future, its fallen men, its immortal heroes. But mostly it's about being a fan—about loving too much. This is a book about America at its most nonsensical, delirious, and joyful.
Monstruos como nosotros: Historias de freaks, colosos y prodigios
by Omar López MatoLos freaks siempre fueron explotados por quienes hicieron de suexhibición una inagotable fuente de riquezas. Junto a la narración deestas vidas prodigiosas (que muchas veces inspiraron a escritores ycineastas) se desarrollan las raíces biológicas que condujeron a susingularidad, las distorsiones cromosómicas o genéticas que explican opretenden revelar esta llamada monstruosidad. Nadie puede estar seguro de si Dios juega a los dados con átomos y protones, pero ha organizado una lotería con genes y cromosomas. Por estas páginas desfilarán individuos que, como todos, participaron en este sorteo y perdieron, sembrando al mundo de enanos acondroplásicos, hombres con cola, mujeres barbudas, gordos prodigiosos o monarcas infradotados, en definitiva una serie de lusus naturae o bromas de la naturaleza, como las llamaba Aristóteles con un dejo de ironía. En este libro describimos sus vidas circenses, sus miserables exposiciones o sus majestuosas ridiculeces.