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Atlas: From the Streets to the Ring: A Son's Struggle to Become a Man
by Peter Alson Teddy Atlas"Of all the people who have affected by my life and influence the choices I've made, none has been more important than my father."So begins the autobiography of legendary boxing trainer and commentator Teddy Atlas, who grew from the rebellious son of a doctor to a man who embraces, and lives by, his father's values and code.In this gritty, spellbinding tale, Atlas recounts his fascinating life -- as a juvenile delinquent on the streets of Staten Island; as a boxer and Golden Gloves champion under the tutelage of famed trainer Cus D'Amato; as a companion to the dangerous, unpredictable Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, up until the day Gravano turned rat and brought down crime boss John Gotti; and as a trainer of champions and contenders, among them fourteen-year-old Mike Tyson and heavyweight Michael Moorer, whom he led to the crown with a win over Evander Holyfield.Equally engrossing are Teddy Atlas's accounts of training dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp for her successful comeback at age forty-two; his work with actor Willem Dafoe, preparing him for his role as a concentration camp boxer in the film Triumph of the Spirit; his journey to Poland to choreograph the film's boxing scenes; and his own performance in movies such as Play It to the Bone. In sharing his stories, Atlas reveals the philosophy by which he lives.Like Teddy Atlas -- inimitable, tough, honest, and wise -- this book inspires. It is about so much more than boxing. It is a story of overcoming hardships, of compassion for those in need, of tremendous personal integrity, and of personal and professional triumph.
Awesome Bill from Dawsonville: My Life in NASCAR
by Bill Elliott Chris MillardIn this long-awaited autobiography, the legendary Bill Elliott details his childhood in rural North Georgia, building cars from scratch, struggling on the anonymous small-time tracks of the South to his against-the-odds rise to the pinnacle of NASCAR stardom: Winston Cup Champion. From Daytona to Talladega, from Bristol to Sonoma, ride shoulder to shoulder with Elliott as he battles Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace, and Alan Kulwicki for NASCAR's ultimate prize. Through Elliott's eyes we meet the colorful cast of old-school characters who built NASCAR: Cale Yarborough, Junior Johnson, the Allisons, Carl Kiekhaefer, and, of course, the France family. We join Bill in the car (and under it) as he sets the all-time record for the fastest official speed ever recorded in a stock car (a record he still holds today). Learn the secret—revealed for the first time—behind the Elliott family's unquestioned mastery of the sport's super speedways. Watch NASCAR grow from a southern diversion into a national phenomenon, and see Bill Elliott grow with it, ultimately becoming one of the sport's most popular heroes. In 1985 Elliott captured the inaugural Winston Million and became the first NASCAR driver ever to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Three years later he captured the Winston Cup Championship. He went on to be voted NASCAR Driver of the Decade for the 1980s by NASCAR fans. He was also voted Most Popular Driver sixteen times. Elliott also shares his thoughts on the dark side of the racing life: the stresses it can place on relationships, the ever-present physical risks, and the weight of fame. He addresses the racing-related deaths of competitors and friends. He is candid and critical in discussing the intense rivalry between him and the late Dale Earnhardt, and he sheds new light on their storied relationship as well as on Earnhardt's shocking death. Elliott discusses the future of NASCAR with critiques of its management and restrictor plates, and he takes on the controversial issues of track and driver safety. A window into the compelling personality of Bill Elliott, as well as a primer on the ascent of America's fastestgrowing sport, this is the definitive insider's view of the rising NASCAR nation.
Baby Be Mine: The Shocking True Story of a Woman Accused of Murdering a Pregnant Mother to Steal Her Child
by Diane FanningTHE MIRACLE OF LIFEWhen Lisa Montgomery presented her husband Kevin with their new-born baby girl, he was ecstatic. Naming the child Abigail, the couple brought her to their local pastor. Miles away, police were investigating the brutal murder of a pregnant woman...THE HORROR OF MURDERTwenty-three year old Bobbie Jo Stinnett was found by her mother, lying in a pool of blood, looking as if her stomach "had exploded." Investigators soon determined: Someone had strangled Bobbie Jo to death—and then cut her fetus from her womb...THE WOMAN ACCUSED OF KILLING FOR AN UNBORN CHILD...In late 2004, two women met in a dog-breeding internet chat room. When Elizabeth Montgomery came face to face with eight-months-pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett, prosecutors claim she already had a plan. Investigators knew that Bobbie Jo had fought desperately for her life—and that her fetus, alive or dead, was gone. Investigators scrambled after a killer. An "Amber Alert" went out for an hours-old infant. And this horrifying case was about to shock neighbors and a nation: of a woman accused of murdering for a baby...
Behold the Many: A Novel
by Lois-Ann YamanakaBehold the Many is the eerily beautiful story of three young sisters, Anah, Aki, and Leah. In 1913, they are sent away from their family for treatment for tuberculosis to an orphanage in Hawaii's Kalihi Valley. Of the three, two will die there, in spite of the nuns' best efforts to save them, and only Anah, the eldest, will grow to adulthood. But the ghosts of the dead children are afraid to leave the grounds of St. Joseph's, which is the only place they have known as home, and as Anah prepares to begin married life away from the orphanage, these ghost children grow angry. Desperate for the love of this girl who has communicated with them since her childhood, jealous of her ability to live in the physical world, and terrified of losing her, the ghosts are determined to thwart Anah's happiness. One of them places a curse on her that will reverberate through her future and that of her new family. As Anah struggles to appease the dead and to quiet her own guilt for living, it becomes apparent that only through one of her own daughters can redemption be attained. Poignant, lyrical, and utterly compelling, Behold the Many is a stunning new novel from the critically acclaimed author Lois-Ann Yamanaka.
Bless Your Heart, Tramp!: And Other Southern Endearments
by Celia RivenbarkFrom the wickedly hilarious pen of Southern humorist Celia Rivenbark comes a collection of essays that brings to mind Dave Barry (in high heels) or Jeff Foxworthy (in a prom dress).Step into the wacky world of "womanless wedding" fund-raisers, in which Bubbas wear boas. Meet two sisters who fight rural boredom by washing Budweiser cans and cutting them into pieces to make clothing. Learn why the word snow sends any right-thinking Southerner careening to the Food Lion for extra loaves of bread and little else. Humor columnist and slightly crazed belle-by-birth Celia Rivenbark tackles these and other lard-laden subjects in Bless Your Heart, Tramp, a hilarious look at Southern---and just plain human---foibles, up-close and personal. So pour yourself a glass of sweet tea and curl up on the pie-azza with Bless Your Heart, Tramp.
The Blonde: A Thriller
by Duane SwierczynskiBoy meets girl. Girl kidnaps boy. Boy loses girl, and is pursued by a professional killer carrying a decapitated head in a gym bag. The Blonde is a modern (crime) love story from The Wheelman author Duane Swierczynski. The night before a big meeting, Jack Eisley is sitting in an airport bar in Philadelphia, chatting up a pretty young blonde. Sure, Jack has a wife and daughter at home, but this is just a little harmless flirting. Harmless, that is, until the blonde leans forward and says, "I poisoned your drink."She tells Jack that unless she can keep someone within ten feet of her at all times, she'll die. And if he wants the antidote, he'll have to take her back to his hotel room and promise to stay by her side.Jack thinks: psycho. But as the violent night wears on, and he encounters a relentless government assassin, a threatening voice on a cell phone, a deadly waitress, dirty cops, and shady cab drivers . . . He begins to believe her...
The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce
by Deirdre NansenFor a century and a half, the artists and intellectuals of Europe have scorned the bourgeoisie. And for a millennium and a half, the philosophers and theologians of Europe have scorned the marketplace. The bourgeois life, capitalism, Mencken’s “booboisie” and David Brooks’s “bobos”—all have been, and still are, framed as being responsible for everything from financial to moral poverty, world wars, and spiritual desuetude. Countering these centuries of assumptions and unexamined thinking is Deirdre McCloskey’s The Bourgeois Virtues, a magnum opus that offers a radical view: capitalism is good for us. McCloskey’s sweeping, charming, and even humorous survey of ethical thought and economic realities—from Plato to Barbara Ehrenreich—overturns every assumption we have about being bourgeois. Can you be virtuous and bourgeois? Do markets improve ethics? Has capitalism made us better as well as richer? Yes, yes, and yes, argues McCloskey, who takes on centuries of capitalism’s critics with her erudition and sheer scope of knowledge. Applying a new tradition of “virtue ethics” to our lives in modern economies, she affirms American capitalism without ignoring its faults and celebrates the bourgeois lives we actually live, without supposing that they must be lives without ethical foundations.High Noon, Kant, Bill Murray, the modern novel, van Gogh, and of course economics and the economy all come into play in a book that can only be described as a monumental project and a life’s work. The Bourgeois Virtues is nothing less than a dazzling reinterpretation of Western intellectual history, a dead-serious reply to the critics of capitalism—and a surprising page-turner.
Buried (Tom Thorne Novels #6)
by Mark BillinghamA MISSING BOYTeenager Luke Mullen was last seen getting into a car with an older woman. No one can understand why he has disappeared. His father - a former police officer - knows all too well that the longer he is missing, the more likely he is to turn up dead. A TERRIFYING VIDEOThen Luke's parents receive an anonymous video. It shows their son, eyes wide with terror, as a man advances towards him holding a syringe. A RACE AGAINST TIMEDI Tom Thorne recognises a psychopath when he sees one. And the scene on the tape chills him to the bone - he knows that a child's life hangs in the balance, and that every minute counts...
Can You Say a Few Words?: How To Prepare And Deliver A Speech For Any Special Occasion
by Joan Detz-Your alma mater asks you to say a few words at an upcoming fundraising dinner-You've won an employee award and will have to give a short acceptance speech at the ceremony-Your parents are celebrating their 50th anniversary, and you'd like to make a toast at their partyEveryone's counting on you to sound polished, to be prepared, to speak with savvy-in short, to give a speech that's as memorable as the occasion itself.Don't dread these invitations to speak. Instead, learn to prepare clear, concise, and engaging speeches that will live up to your audience's expectations and match the mood of the occasion.Award-winning corporate speechwriter Joan Detz offers solid advice for tackling this nerve-racking task-with pointers, tips, and trade secrets that will help you make the most of every speaking opportunity.Clearly written and fun to read, this invaluable guide provides all the practical advice and encouragement you need to deliver a winning speech.
Captive of My Desires: A Malory Novel (Malory-Anderson Family #8)
by Johanna LindseyThe #1 New York Times bestselling author of &“first-rate romance&” (Daily News, New York) returns with this dazzling Malory novel following a pirate&’s daughter as she plots vengeance on the aristocratic rogue who embroiled her in a scandal. When Gabrielle Brooks sets sail from England to the Caribbean in search of her estranged father, she has no idea that she&’s in for the shock of her life—her father is a pirate. After three thrilling years hunting treasure with him, she&’s devastated when he insists she leave the swashbuckling life behind and find a proper husband in London. He arranges for his old friend James Malory and his wife, Georgina, to sponsor her in polite society. Gabrielle isn&’t impressed with the extravagant balls and parties…until she meets Georgina&’s brother Drew Anderson, a dashing American sea captain. But when Drew destroys Gabrielle&’s reputation the night before he&’s to set sail, the pirate&’s daughter vows revenge by commandeering Drew&’s ship and taking him prisoner. Too bad she didn&’t anticipate passion growing on the high sea, or the line between captor and captive blurring.
The Carpet Makers
by Andreas EschbachSince the time of pre-history, carpetmakers tie intricate knots to form carpets for the court of the Emperor. These carpets are made from the hairs of wives and daughters; they are so detailed and fragile that each carpetmaker finishes only one single carpet in his entire lifetime.This art descends from father to son, since the beginning of time itself.But one day the empire of the God Emperor vanishes, and strangers begin to arrive from the stars to follow the trace of the hair carpets. What these strangers discover is beyond all belief, more than anything they could have ever imagined...Brought to the attention of Tor Books by Orson Scott Card, this edition of The Carpet Makers contains a special introduction by Orson Scott Card.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China
by John Pomfret"A highly personal, honest, funny and well-informed account of China's hyperactive effort to forget its past and reinvent its future."—The New York Times Book ReviewAs one the first American students admitted to China after the communist revolution, John Pomfret was exposed to a country still emerging from the twin tragedies of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Crammed into a dorm room with seven Chinese men, Pomfret contended with all manner of cultural differences, from too-short beds and roommates intent on glimpsing a white man naked, to the need for cloak-and-dagger efforts to conceal his relationships with Chinese women. Amidst all that, he immersed himself in the remarkable lives of his classmates.Beginning with Pomfret's first day in China, Chinese Lessons takes us down the often torturous paths that brought together the Nanjing University History Class of 1982: Old Wu's father was killed during the Cultural Revolution for the crime of being an intellectual; Book Idiot Zhou labored in the fields for years rather than agree to a Party-arranged marriage; and Little Guan was forced to publicly denounce and humiliate her father. As Pomfret follows his classmates from childhood to adulthood, he examines the effect of China's transition from near-feudal communism to first-world capitalism. The result is an illuminating report from present-day China, and a moving portrait of its extraordinary people.
Clinical Nutrition in Gastrointestinal Disease
by Alan L. BuchmanNutrition has been identified as one of the most neglected, but important aspects of gastroenterology. Clinical Nutrition in Gastrointestinal Disease covers all of the vital aspects of nutrition and serves as the definitive resource on this topic.Dr. Alan Buchman has teamed up with more than 70 world renowned leaders in the field to provide today’s professional specializing in gastrointestinal disease with a practical guide that examines and explains the necessary elements and principles of nutrition. With more than 100 images and 180 tables, Clinical Nutrition in Gastrointestinal Disease contains essential information to optimally and successfully manage pediatric and adult patients.Some Topics Covered Include: Nutritional assessment Nutrition in critical care Nutritional support Management of intestinal failure Obesity Pediatrics Probiotics Nutrient absorption Metabolism Home care Some Gastrointestinal Diseases Covered Include: Inflammatory bowel disease Irritable bowel syndrome Colon cancer Pancreatititis Heptatic failure Celiac sprue Clinical Nutrition in Gastrointestinal Disease delivers the latest information in a comprehensive and well-organized format that is perfect for gastroenterologists, general surgeons, and general internists looking to increase their knowledge of clinical nutrition. The extensive use of images, graphs, and tables compliments the text and makes this one of the most authoritative and thorough books on gastrointestinal disease currently on the market.
Come Sundown
by Mike BlakelyReluctant hero, Honore Greenwood, has a knack for embroiling himself in the most violent conflicts of the Southern Plains. Known as Plenty Man to the Comanches, Honore serves as ransom negotiator for captives among the Indians. As if his life wasn't in danger enough, Honore has offered his services to the New Mexico Volunteers in the Civil War. But as Honore's luck would have it, he's in the same unit as Luther Sheffield, a man whose grudge against Greenwood knows no boundaries, even though they are fighting on the same side. Leaving behind his beautiful Arapaho bride, Honore rides out, joining his legendary friend, Kit Carson, as a scout. But he is swept into more action than he bargained for—heavy combat in the battles of Val Verde Ford and Glorieta Pass plus Indian attacks—all the while watching over his shoulder for the ruthless Luther Sheffield. Worried that he may soon be ordered to take up arms against his own adoptive tribe, the Comanches, Honore resigns as Kit's scout to return to his tribe. But Honore's halcyon days among the Indians cannot last forever, and he knows that eventually his old cavalry unit will come to attack his village. Torn between a nation on the rise and his own adoptive culture, Plenty Man is forced to lead the fight for Comanche freedom against his old friend, the great Kit Carson, in a battle at a remote place in the Texas Panhandle called Adobe Walls. But in the end, it becomes difficult to tell enemy from ally, and Plenty Man knows his loyalty to the Indians may cost him everything – his beautiful wife, his freedom to return to white civilization, his friendship with Kit, and even his very life.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Cowboys and Aliens
by Scott Mitchell RosenbergThe ultimate showdown between Cowboys and Indians is interrupted...by an alien invasion. The Old West will never be the same.When an extra-terrestrial armada lands in the Wild West, they find themselves in a showdown with one tough posse of rough-and-ready heroes—and the Cowboys and Aliens graphic novel gives you the thrilling comic book stories that started it all off! Compiling every issue of Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s electrifying comic book series, this gorgeous, full-color graphic novel features the dynamic creative talents of Fred Van Lente, Andrew Foley, and Luciano Lima—as well as all-new tie-in art from the spectacular motion picture, starring Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, and Sam Rockwell. Whether you’re rooting for the gunslingers or the little green men, don’t bring your guns to town without reading a copy of the Cowboys and Aliens graphic novel!
Creative Bible Lessons in Genesis (Creative Bible Lessons)
by Hoon KimCreative Bible Lessons in Genesis follows the work previously done with other studies in the series. What makes this volume different is that it is sensitive to the influence of postmodernism on today’s culture and values, it complements the widespread use of multimedia, and is experiential in approach. With a desire to be relevant, it does not scan Scripture, but intends to be scripturally thorough and accurate, with an understanding that the power of the studies is ultimately found in the biblical text. Because much of what is understood to be "truth" today is arrived to by subjective interpretation, there is a strong but subtle element in the studies that highlights the Imago Dei (image of God) in man. The blueprint of the Trinitarian God in man is, perhaps, the sturdiest bridge between postmodern "experiencisms" and ultimate truth and reality. In order to emphasize these elements, Bible studies include projection games, helps, and visuals. Also, many of the studies are highlighted by a participation which attempts to be close to the text account. There are small group and large group elements that have been developed with the technologically savvy student in mind.Creative Bible Lessons in Genesis follows the lives of various individuals in Genesis. In a world where communication is less face-to-face and more screen to screen, family breakdowns are the norm rather than the exception, and role models often communicate debatable values, an anchor for life can only be found in the God, who does not change. Human nature can only be satisfactorily understood through the image of God in man, and that all behavior, desires, and actions people take are ultimate acts of worship, and desire for God. The return to the Imago Dei in man is the clearest way to present absolute truth to a relative society in that it is able to posit a valid argument for God and faith from an intellectual and logic platform, as well as from a subjective/emotional/experiential platform.
Critical Race Counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano Educational Pipeline (Teaching/Learning Social Justice)
by Tara J. YossoChicanas/os are part of the youngest, largest, and fastest growing racial/ethnic 'minority' population in the United States, yet at every schooling level, they suffer the lowest educational outcomes of any racial/ethnic group. Using a 'counterstorytelling' methodology, Tara Yosso debunks racialized myths that blame the victims for these unequal educational outcomes and redirects our focus toward historical patterns of institutional neglect. She artfully interweaves empirical data and theoretical arguments with engaging narratives that expose and analyse racism as it functions to limit access and opportunity for Chicana/o students. By humanising the need to transform our educational system, Yosso offers an accessible tool for teaching and learning about the problems and possibilities present along the Chicano/a educational pipeline.
Critical Writings: New Edition
by F. T. MarinettiThe Futurist movement was founded and promoted by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, beginning in 1909 with the First Futurist Manifesto, in which he inveighed against the complacency of "cultural necrophiliacs" and sought to annihilate the values of the past, writing that "there is no longer any beauty except the struggle. Any work of art that lacks a sense of aggression can never be a masterpiece." In the years that followed, up until his death in 1944, Marinetti, through both his polemical writings and his political activities, sought to transform society in all its aspects. As Günter Berghaus writes in his introduction, "Futurism sought to bridge the gap between art and life and to bring aesthetic innovation into the real world. Life was to be changed through art, and art was to become a form of life."This volume includes more than seventy of Marinetti's most important writings—many of them translated into English for the first time—offering the reader a representative and still startling selection of texts concerned with Futurist art, literature, politics, and philosophy.
Damnation Street (The Weiss and Bishop Mysteries)
by Andrew Klavan&“Great characters, inventive plotting, darkness, light, horror, and humor . . . a relentless tale of suspense&” from an Edgar Award–winning author (Booklist, starred review). They are two sworn enemies with a single obsession: a woman on the run from them both. Scott Weiss is a private detective. John Foy is a professional killer. The woman is Julie Wyant, a hooker with the face of an angel. Julie spent one night with Foy—a night of psychopathic cruelty that Foy called love. Desperate to get away from him, she vanished without a trace. And Foy wants her back. There&’s only one man who can find her: Weiss, the best locate operative in the business. She&’s begged him not to look for her, fearing he&’ll bring the killer in his wake. But Weiss can&’t stay away. Now, from a town called Paradise, through a wilderness that feels like hell, Weiss searches for Julie—and the killer follows, waiting for his chance. They are two expert hunters matching move for move—until it ends on Damnation Street.
Dates From Hell: Four Otherworldly Tales of Paranormal Trysts (The Hollows)
by Lori Handeland Kelley Armstrong Kim Harrison Lynsay SandsShe thought her date was out of this world.Actually, he was not of this world . . .We've all been on bad dates, nightmare dates, dreadful experiences that turned out to be uniquely memorable in the very worst way. But at least our partners for these detestable evenings were more or less . . . human!Now Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Kelley Armstrong, and Lori Handeland -- four of the very best writers currently exploring the dangerous seduction of the supernatural -- offer up dating disasters (and unexpected delights) of a completely different sort: dark, wicked, paranormally sensual assignations with werewolves, demon lovers, and the romantically challenged undead. Sexy, witty, chilling, and altogether remarkable, here is proof positive that some love matches are made someplace other than heaven.
The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God!
by Joe EszterhasIn The Devil's Guide to Hollywood, bestselling author and legendary bad-boy screenwriter Joe Eszterhas tells everything he knows about the industry, its players and screenwriting itself—from the first blank sheet of paper in the Olivetti to the size of the credit on the one-sheet. "There's just one hunk of funny anecdote after another, quotes from everyone who ever mattered in the movie biz, and the thing is jam-packed with screenwriterly advice. Plus it's hilariously funny, ribald, sexy and brilliant."—Liz SmithOften practical and always entertaining, The Devil's Guide to Hollywood distills everything one of Hollywood's most accomplished screenwriters knows about the business, from writing advice to negotiation tricks, from the wisdom of past players to the feuds of current ones. Eszterhas has selected his personal pantheon of the most loved and loathed players in the business and treats the reader to a treasure trove of stories, quotes and wisdom from those luminaries, who include William Goldman (loathes) and Zsa Zsa Gabor (loves). The Devil's Guide to Hollywood could only have been written by someone who loves the business as much as Eszterhas does—but who also has its number."Eszterhas delivers a dishy, catty mix of reminiscences and Hollywood trivia…his forte is skewering sycophants and phonies in this opinionated showcase of the underside of Hollywood life."—Publishers Weekly
The Dissident: A Novel
by Nell FreudenbergerFrom the PEN/Malamud Award-winning author of Lucky Girls comes an intricately woven novel about secrets, love, art, identity, and the shining chaos of every day American life.Yuan Zhao, a celebrated Chinese performance artist and political dissident, has accepted a one-year artist's residency in Los Angeles. He is to be a Visiting Scholar at the St. Anselm's School for Girls, teaching advanced art, and hosted by one of the school's most devoted families: the wealthy if dysfunctional Traverses. The Traverses are too preoccupied with their own problems to pay their foreign guest too much attention, and the dissident is delighted to be left alone—his past links with radical movements give him good reason to avoid careful scrutiny. The trouble starts when he and his American hosts begin to view one another with clearer eyes.
Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera
by Philip GossettWinner of the 2007 Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society and the 2007 Deems Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.Divas and Scholars is a dazzling and beguiling account of how opera comes to the stage, filled with Philip Gossett’s personal experiences of triumphant—and even failed—performances and suffused with his towering and tonic passion for music. Writing as a fan, a musician, and a scholar, Gossett, the world's leading authority on the performance of Italian opera, brings colorfully to life the problems, and occasionally the scandals, that attend the production of some of our most favorite operas. Gossett begins by tracing the social history of nineteenth-century Italian theaters in order to explain the nature of the musical scores from which performers have long worked. He then illuminates the often hidden but crucial negotiations opera scholars and opera conductors and performers: What does it mean to talk about performing from a critical edition? How does one determine what music to perform when multiple versions of an opera exist? What are the implications of omitting passages from an opera in a performance? In addition to vexing questions such as these, Gossett also tackles issues of ornamentation and transposition in vocal style, the matters of translation and adaptation, and even aspects of stage direction and set design. Throughout this extensive and passionate work, Gossett enlivens his history with reports from his own experiences with major opera companies at venues ranging from the Metropolitan and Santa Fe operas to the Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro. The result is a book that will enthrall both aficionados of Italian opera and newcomers seeking a reliable introduction to it—in all its incomparable grandeur and timeless allure.
Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America
by Tom LutzFrom the author of Crying, a witty, wide-ranging cultural history of our attitudes toward work—and getting out of itCouch potatoes, goof-offs, freeloaders, good-for-nothings, loafers, and loungers: ever since the Industrial Revolution, when the work ethic as we know it was formed, there has been a chorus of slackers ridiculing and lampooning the pretensions of hardworking respectability. Reviled by many, heroes to others, these layabouts stretch and yawn while the rest of society worries and sweats. Whenever the world of labor changes in significant ways, the pulpits, politicians, and pedagogues ring with exhortations of the value of work, and the slackers answer with a strenuous call of their own: "To do nothing," as Oscar Wilde said, "is the most difficult thing in the world." From Benjamin Franklin's "air baths" to Jack Kerouac's "dharma bums," Generation-X slackers, and beyond, anti-work-ethic proponents have held a central place in modern culture.Moving with verve and wit through a series of fascinating case studies that illuminate the changing place of leisure in the American republic, Doing Nothing revises the way we understand slackers and work itself.
The Draco Tavern
by Larry NivenFrom the mind of #1 New York Times bestselling author Larry Niven, come twenty-six tales and vignettes from this interplanetary gathering place, collected for the first time in one volume. When a tremendous spacecraft took orbit around the Earth's moon and began sending smaller landers down toward the North Pole, the newly arrived visitors quickly set up a permanent spaceport at Mount Forel in Siberia. Their presence attracted many, and a few people grew conspicuously rich from secrets they learned from talking to the aliens. One of these men, Rick Schumann established a tavern catering to all of various species of visiting aliens, a place he named the Draco Tavern.This collection includes:"The Subject Is Closed": A priest visits the tavern and goes one-on-one with a chirpsithra alien on the subject of God and life after death."Table Mannners: A Folk Tale": Rick Schumann is invited to hunt with five folk aliens, but he's not quite sure what their hunt entails, or if he will be the hunted."Wisdom of Demons": The age-old question of wisdom vs. knowledge is asked when Rick is confronted by a human who has been granted the wisdom of an individual gligstith(click)optok alien. "Losing Mars" in this unpublished tale, a group of aliens who call Mars and its moon home, arrive at the Tavern only to find that humans have mostly forgotten about their neighboring planet.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.