- Table View
- List View
A Class Apart: Prodigies, Pressure, and Passion Inside One of America's Best High Schools
by Alec KleinEnter Stuyvesant High, one of the most extraordinary schools in America, a place where the brainiacs prevail and jocks are embarrassed to admit they play on the woeful football team. Academic competition is so intense that students say they can have only two of these three things: good grades, a social life, or sleep. About one in four Stuyvesant students gains admission to the Ivy League. And the school's alumni include several Nobel laureates, Academy Award winners, and luminaries in the arts, business, and public service. A Class Apart follows the lives of Stuyvesant's remarkable students, such as Romeo, the football team captain who teaches himself calculus and strives to make it into Harvard; Jane, a world-weary poet at seventeen, battling the demon of drug addiction; Milo, a ten-year-old prodigy trying to fit in among high-school students who are literally twice his size; Mariya, a first-generation American beginning to resist parental pressure for ever-higher grades so that she can enjoy her sophomore year. And then there is the faculty, such as math chairman Mr. Jaye, who is determined not to let bureaucratic red tape stop him from helping his teachers. He even finds a job for a depressed math genius who lacks a college degree but possesses the gift of teaching. This is the story of the American dream, a New York City school that inspires immigrants to come to these shores so that their children can attend Stuyvesant in the first step to a better life. It's also the controversial story of elitism in education. Stuyvesant is a public school, but children must pass a rigorous entrance exam to get in. Only about 3 percent do so, which, Stuyvesant students and faculty point out, makes admission to their high school tougher than to Harvard. On the eve of the hundredth anniversary of Stuyvesant's first graduating class, reporter Alec Klein, an alumnus, was given unfettered access to the school and the students and faculty who inhabit it. What emerges is a book filled with stunning, raw, and heartrending personalities, whose stories are hilarious, sad, and powerfully moving.
Collected Poems
by Tony HarrisonTony Harrison published his first pamphlet of poems in 1964 and for over fifty years has been a prominent force in modern poetry. His poetic range is truly far-reaching, from the intimate tenderness of family life and personal love, to war poems written from Bosnia and savage public outcries against politicians. In The Collected Poems, Harrison draws deeply both on classical tradition and on the vernacular of the street. Combining the private and the public in a way Harrison has made distinctly his own, and drawing on his working-class upbringing in Leeds, these are powerful poems for modern times.This is the first complete paperback collection of one of Britain's most controversial and critically acclaimed poets.'Tony Harrison is the greatest poet of the second half of the 20th century. . . He writes brilliantly about class, love and Britain' Daniel Radcliffe'Harrison is a masterly technician, and the most fiery and indelible English poet of the age. This book is a vineyard on a volcano' Paul Farley
Coltrane: The Story of a Sound
by Ben RatliffJohn Coltrane left an indelible mark on the world, but what was the essence of his achievement that makes him so prized forty years after his death? What were the factors that helped Coltrane become who he was? And what would a John Coltrane look like now--or are we looking for the wrong signs?In this deftly written, riveting study, New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff answers these questions and examines the life of Coltrane, the acclaimed band leader and deeply spiritual man who changed the face of jazz music. Ratliff places jazz among other art forms and within the turbulence of American social history, and he places Coltrane not just among jazz musicians but among the greatest American artists.
Commando
by Chris TerrillChris Terrill is a man in search of his limit. He's 55 years old. He is not a soldier. He is being trained by the Royal Marines and he is going to Afghanistan. The only difference is that instead of a gun, Chris will be holding a camera and filming the whole ordeal for a major TV series.The Royal Marines Commando training base in Lympstone Devon, has a famous motto: '99.9% need not apply'. Of those who start training, after a very tough selection process, nearly 50% fail to make it through the most gruelling physical tests of any armed forces in the world in an eight month training regime. The elite who do eventually pass out are generally eighteen years old and at the peak of physical condition. But Chris Terrill is the exception: this book will tell of his heroic struggle to become the oldest man to win the coveted Royal Marines Commando Green Beret and enter the record books.And after six months of hell, what next? Chris will follow the raw recruits on a tour to Southern Afghanistan. He will tell the story in book and film of the fears and hopes of the youngsters as they are plunged into one of the planet's most dangerous wars in the outlaw mountain terrain of Helmand Province. He will tell of ferocious battles against the Taliban, of firefights, of jaw-dropping heroism, British sang froid and humour and tragedy as causalities are suffered -- all from the unique perspective of a civilian who has achieved the ultimate accolade: to be accepted as an honorary Royal Marines Commando. Commando is a brilliant account of modern war on the front line.
The Commission: A Sam Kincaid Mystery (Sam Kincaid Series #0)
by Michael Norman"Norman is off to a fine start with this alternately gripping and repellent crime novel."—Publishers Weekly STARRED reviewLevi Vogue, Chairman of the powerful Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, is gunned down in the driveway of his home as he returns from a late evening tryst with an exotic dancer. Sam Kincaid, Chief of the Special Investigations Branch (SIB) of the Utah Department of Corrections, is assigned to help Salt Lake City Police Department homicide detective Lt. Kate McConnell solve Vogue's murder.The investigation draws Kincaid and McConnell into the city's seedy underbelly, where the investigation focuses on Charles (Slick) Watts, a violent ex-convict with a long criminal history and a score to settle with Levi Vogue. But before Watts can be apprehended, his body is discovered at an abandoned military base in Wendover, Nevada.Kincaid and McConnell soon expand their theory of the case and are led inside the Utah state prison...
The Complete Guide to Reverse Mortgages: Turn Your Home Equity into Instant Income!
by Tammy Kraemer Tyler KraemerGet the most from your home!Until recently, there were only two main ways you could get cash from your home: sell it or borrow against it and make monthly loan repayments. Reverse mortgages offer a third way of getting money from your home. If you are a homeowner, age 62 and older, you are eligible to apply for a reverse mortgage loan that converts your home equity into a tax-free income. With The Complete Guide to Reverse Mortgages, you&’ll learn all you need to know to earn the supplemental income you need, without worrying about: • Having to sell your home • Giving up your title • Taking on a new monthly mortgage payment This invaluable guide explains everything you need to know about reverse mortgages and how to use them to your advantage. With practicing attorneys Tammy Kraemer and Tyler Kraemer leading the way, you will learn the step-by-step process to getting a reverse mortgage and making the best of your retirement!
The Congo and the Cameroons (Great Journeys Ser.)
by Mary KingsleyContemptuous of Europe's 'civilising mission' in Africa, Mary Kingsley's (1862-1900) extraordinary journeys through tropical west Africa are a remarkable record, both of a world which has vanished and of a writer and explorer of immense bravery, wit and humanity. Paddling through mangrove swamps, fending off crocodiles, climbing Mount Cameroon, Kingsley is both admirable and funny.Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the centuries – but also back into ideas and worlds frightening, ruthless and cruel in different ways from our own. Few reading experiences can begin to match that of engaging with writers who saw astounding things: Great civilisations, walls of ice, violent and implacable jungles, deserts and mountains, multitudes of birds and flowers new to science. Reading these books is to see the world afresh, to rediscover a time when many cultures were quite strange to each other, where legends and stories were treated as facts and in which so much was still to be discovered.
Cries & Whiskers (Theda Krakow Series #3)
by Clea SimonWhen an animal rights activist is killed by a hit-and-run driver on an icy Cambridge street, music critic Theda Krakow can't get too upset. Besides, Theda is busy investigating the rise of a dangerous new designer drug that threatens the musicians and fans who make up the popular club scene.But when Theda learns that the accident victim was defying her own radical group to rescue feral cats on the eve of a ferocious winter storm, she puts her own prejudices aside to help investigate. As Theda and her buddy Violet race to save these half-wild felines from the freezing New England winter, they uncover simmering tensions that make the activist's death seem more than accidental. Could a friend have been the fatal driver? Is Violet more involved with the extremist group than she's let on? Then Theda's cat Musetta goes missing....
Crossing the Boundary
by Kevin PietersenDescribed by the media as 'the David Beckham of cricket', Kevin has become the poster boy for English cricket. But he is also in possession of a prodigious talent - fearless, bold and with unflappable nerves. His unique batting style has produced hundreds of runs and many outstanding innings, culminating in his extraordinary triumph at the 2005 Ashes. Yet with the highs, come the lows, and he gives his version of events during the 2006/07 Ashes when England were defeated by Australia.Crossing the Boundary recounts Kevin's remarkable journey so far - from growing up in his native South Africa and the opposition he faced from the national cricket board; his move to England and burgeoning career at Hampshire to winning a place on the England team. It provides a rare insight into the mind of an international cricketer, on and off the pitch. Reflecting his youthful charisma and his bullish confidence, this is a sporting memoir like no other.Full of personal anecdotes and insight from numerous sporting legends such as Shane Warne, Ian Botham, and Nasser Hussain, this is the riveting story of one of the most significant cricketers of our time.
Crying in the Dark
by Shane DunphyFour extraordinary true stories ... Bobby and Micky, six and four, controlled from beyond the grave by their evil father ... Mina, seventeen, who has Downs Syndrome, desperate to be like everyone else, falling into the hands of men who abuse her trust ... Sylvie, a fourteen-year-old mother being pimped by her father ... Twins Larry and Francey, ten, scarcely human after an upbringing of savage and unimaginable cruelty ... One inspiring account of how one man got to know these wounded children and tried to give them hope - and a future.
Cuckold
by Amber LeighA little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But that's all Edwin Miller wants. He has a good job, a pleasant home, and is married to the beautiful and loving Des. All he needs to make his life complete is the answer to one question: Has his wife made him a cuckold?Not sure if the idea is the sum of his fears, or the revelation of his true desire, Edwin struggles to uncover the truth. But the answer could mean his life is never the same again.
Culloden Tales: Stories from Scotland's Most Famous Battlefield
by Hugh G. AllisonCulloden was the last battle on British soil. It marked the end of clan culture and was the harbinger of the Highland Clearances. It ensured the inevitability of the American Revolution and increased the outpouring of Scots across the globe. It is the only battle that British Army regiments are not permitted to include in their battle honours; the only battle that Bonnie Prince Charlie ever lost; and the only battle that the Duke of Cumberland ever won.Culloden is a battlefield, a graveyard and an iconic site that draws people from all parts of the world. And as they come, they bring with them their stories and their father's father's stories. These stories tell of civil war, of love, of the unexpected and even of the supernatural. They are peopled by the second-sighted, by clan chiefs and by others who have kept family secrets for centuries.The battlefield is a poignant location, resonant with past deeds and emotive memories. These Culloden tales are offered as a unique record to the power of the place.
Cupid's Dart
by David NobbsAlan and Ange are on a train, heading for London. Alan is a philosophy lecturer, still a virgin at fifty-five; Ange a twenty-something, horoscope reading, darts groupie. They certainly don't expect their first casual meeting to lead to anything, but it does. Seizing the day, as they pull into Euston station, Alan asks Ange out to dinner and so begins the unlikeliest of liaisons. As they get to know each other, they are initiated into each other's worlds. From the claustrophobic confines of an Oxford College to the heady excitement of a big dart's match; from Liebfraumilch to Wittgenstein and everything in between. They even travel to Rome seeing many wonderful things as Alan learns to live for the moment and Ange to appreciate the finer things in life. But can they survive their differences in age and background? Are Alan's feelings the stuff of obsession and infatuation or is this true love? And what sort of philosopher is he if he cannot define and understand love? Told through the voice of Alan, this touching and hilarious story is much more than a tale about an unlikely couple. Ultimately, it is a story about the nature of love.
Curious Pleasures: A Gentleman's Collection of Beastliness
by The Reverend Dr Eramus St Jude Croom DDThe best libraries in Victorian Britain kept this tome under lock and key, permitting access only to doctors and professors. Scotland Yard had a copy in their reference library, and even Sherlock Holmes may have had recourse to a copy in certain investigations. In private collections across the English speaking world, it was kept on top shelves, or safely stowed in locked cabinets, beyond the reach of minors, domestics and spouses. Any woman who gazed upon its pages was said to have fainted away. The church campaigned to have it banned and the German translation was burned at Nuremberg. Many antiquarian book sellers believe the book to have been a myth, others claimed it changed hands at enormous cost, and some are certain all original copies are now lost. But Curious Pleasures does exist and is back in print - nearly a century since it's last apocryphal edition. This encyclopaedic treasure of adult pleasures, dysfunctions and unacceptable female behaviour has been fully restored with the original illustrations intact. In modern hands, this forbidden work of scholarly madness will prove hilarious.
The Cursed: A Vampire Huntress Legend (Vampire Huntress Legend Series #9)
by L. A. BanksFrom the national bestselling author L. A. Banks comes a walk on the wild side with The Cursed, the ninth novel in the popular Vampire Huntress Legend seriesThe Chairman has been killed and now Lilith, Satan's Consort, sits on the vampire throne as the Vampire Council's new Chairwoman. She raises all the dark covens—calling every major dark witch and warlock to do her bidding. Her goal is to distract the team members, while the unborn heir to the Dark Realms awaits his own birth. All Lilith needs now is Damali's newly discovered angelic powers to make that come to pass. That will allow her evil progeny to walk through the veil between worlds and take his throne as the true Anti-Christ. Damali and her crew race to stop Lilith. However, raising not only the dark covens, but all vampires that had not been slain by Damali, puts the world out of balance and kicks off the Armageddon.
The Customs of the Kingdoms of India (Great Journeys Ser.)
by Marco PoloAs Marco Polo (1254-1324) returned home across the Indian Ocean, after years in the service of Genghis Khan, he picked up a fabulous array of stories from sailors and merchants, about the peoples of the region, some reliable, some wholly implausible, but all fascinating.Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the centuries – but also back into ideas and worlds frightening, ruthless and cruel in different ways from our own. Few reading experiences can begin to match that of engaging with writers who saw astounding things: Great civilisations, walls of ice, violent and implacable jungles, deserts and mountains, multitudes of birds and flowers new to science. Reading these books is to see the world afresh, to rediscover a time when many cultures were quite strange to each other, where legends and stories were treated as facts and in which so much was still to be discovered.
The Cut: A Novel
by Wil MaraAfter only his second year with the New York Giants, T. J. Brookman has become the best tight end in professional football. His stats are nothing short of amazing---and what's even more amazing is that he was only a sixth-round pick in the first place. With one season remaining on his rookie contract, his agent, Barry Sturtz, wants to renegotiate and get a more lucrative deal---a common practice among players who have exceeded expectations. But the Giants refuse. They want Brookman to play through his last year, then they'll talk about a new contract. Sturtz, however, doesn't trust them. He wants the deal now—and if he doesn't get it, he's going to instruct T.J. to boycott the team's upcoming training camp. Head coach Alan Gray doesn't flinch at the threat—if T.J. doesn't show, he says, they'll simply bench him. Sturtz thinks it's a bluff---the Giants have had problems with offensive production, and T.J. is their only bright spot. But Gray insists he's serious. No one is more stunned by this development than offensive coordinator Dale Greenwood. Having struggled in polite subordination under Gray's megalomaniacal leadership, the talented Greenwood is concerned that he will now lose his most productive receiver. He suspects Gray's true motivation is that he simply doesn't want to spend the money on a tight end---Gray is a defensive-minded coach with little interest in the offensive side of the ball. What Gray really wants is for everything to stay just the way it is. And to create the necessary leverage, he orders Greenwood to bring in three "camp bodies"---decoys, essentially---to compete for T.J.'s job. Greenwood has no choice but to comply, and he assembles a trio of unsigned players from the bottomless pool of league wannabes. What no one anticipates, however, is that these three recruits have more drive and talent than anyone expected. Delighted, Gray believes Sturtz will soon be at his mercy. But neither Sturtz nor any the three hopefuls are willing to be a part of Alan Gray's plan. Many variables are in play here, both on and off the field. And as any student of the game knows, there are more losers than winners on the last day of preseason---a day known as the Cut.
Daddy's Girl
by Stella Black'We both knew it was up to him to lead. He took his time ... I had never been so consciously vulnerable in my life. And now I had to enter a place where I trusted this man completely. Trusted him not to actually abuse me. Trusted him not to hurt me.It was a fine line. How would he or I know when to stop? How far would we go now we had started? Would I be in danger? I could already feel the drama of the compulsion to explore...'In March 1982, 23-year-old Stella Black meets her ultimate match. He is an insanely rich, older man, with all the luxuries life has to offer at his disposal, and yet he yearns for just one thing: Stella. Together, they embark on a daring sexual journey that proves breathtakingly erotic. As Stella explores her submissive side, she finds herself falling deeper than she could ever have imagined.Based on the author's own diaries, this is a real-life Fifty Shades with a difference.
Daemons Are Forever (Secret Histories #2)
by Simon R. GreenNew York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green continues his Secret Histories fantasy adventure series featuring supernatural super agent Eddie Drood.The name’s Drood. Shaman Drood.For centuries, my seriously dysfunctional family have been battling the forces of evil, all the while keeping you everyday folks safe, sound, and blissfully unaware of just how truly nasty this world can be. And due to some recent internal conflicts, I’m the man in charge of the whole mess. So, of course, things are about to go sideways.It turns out that in the darkest days of World War II, my family was in a hard place, fighting a desperate battle against some infernal creatures the Nazis had brought into the fray. So, the Droods decided to fight fiend with fiend, making a very stupid deal with a bunch of demons called the Loathly Ones to take our side.The good news is they did a hell of a job.The bad news is they decided to stick around.Now, they’re calling home to let their even more nightmarish masters know that this world is ripe for conquest. And me and mine are the only ones who can stop them.
Daisy Miller: A Comedy In Three Acts
by Henry JamesTravelling in Europe with her family, Daisy Miller, an exquisitely beautiful young American woman, presents her fellow-countryman Winterbourne with a dilemma he cannot resolve. Is she deliberately flouting social convention in the outspoken way she talks and acts, or is she simply ignorant of those conventions? When she strikes up an intimate friendship with an urbane young Italian, her flat refusal to observe the codes of respectable behaviour leave her perilously exposed. In Daisy Miller James created his first great portrait of the enigmatic and dangerously independent American woman, a figure who would come to dominate his later masterpieces.
Dance for your Daddy: The True Story of a Brutal East End Childhood
by Katherine Shellduck'This morning I found this bag. I had been looking for sweets. I put my hand in the bag and felt a sticky liquid on my fingers, then I looked at it. A red smear. Then I looked in the bag: bloody knives and clothes. It didn't feel good. What did it mean? I don't know. There are no answers; I daren't ask the questions'Growing up in poverty in London's East End, Kathy was eight years old when her father forced her mother into prostitution. When their mother fled, leaving Kathy and her sisters behind, the girls stuck fiercely together while being passed from children's homes to boarding schools. Then, on a rare trip home, Kathy looked out the window to see a man firing four shots into a Rolls-Royce. It took several seconds for her to realise the victim was her mother's lover, and the gunman was her father.Kathy began her haunting memoir when, as an adult, she travelled back to London, to find out who her gangster father really was. A compelling memoir of an extraordinary childhood, Dance for your Daddy is a true story of the effects on one family of poverty and affluence, violence and love.
Dances with Werewolves
by Niki Flynn'Wolfgang tied my wrists to the iron beam against the wall. His rough hands were all over me even before Ben had started photographing. His presumption was exhilarating. I struggled, relishing my helplessness as he lifted me from the hips like a dancer and forced me to straddle him. It was a fantasy come true. Suddenly his hand connected sharply with my bottom and I yelped. He shoved me back against the wall and tore my dress open at the front, exposing me. I trembled with excitement, every nerve in my body awake and wildly alive.'Niki Flynn tells her story in Dances with Werewolves - a real-life Fifty Shades of Grey that dares to go even further. This is a no-holds-barred account from the ultimate submissive - and every word is true. Niki is a young woman on a thrilling journey into the dark heart of sexual fantasy. This is her stunningly explicit and searingly honest memoir about her erotic life. But Niki is not just any submissive, keeping her fantasies hidden behind closed doors. She's the girl the whole world wants to dominate. And she is all too willing to please...After her first discovery of her submissive desires as a young girl at college, Niki finds herself addicted to the rush her forbidden fantasies give her, and starts off down a dark, dark path. Her cravings lead her into the secretive underground of taboo film-making. Niki is an instant hit - worldwide. From schoolgirl canings in England to spankings in California, from a Stasi interrogation in Germany to a forced haircut in Prague, Niki can't get enough. But it is when she meets Cameron, her ultimate master, that he unlocks her darkest desire of all...
The Day Will Come (Stella Crown Series #0)
by Judy Clemens"Clemens certainly keeps you guessing."—Kirkus ReviewsIf Stella Crown loves anything as much as her farm, her Harley, and her friends, it's a good dose of rock-and-roll. So she jumps at the chance to see a Philadelphia legend in concert. But during the performance, a bomb threat empties out the club. When the panic subsides, a member of the band is missing. Later that night, the body of singer Genna is found in the club. Genna's boyfriend, the drummer of the band, is a talented but volatile man. Yet police suspect Stella's friend Jordan Granger, sound man for the band.Stella doesn't buy it. Were these two crimes even related? Meanwhile, Stella's boyfriend Nick has a secret of his own. Why isn't he returning her calls? And why was he so edgy, even before the disastrous concert? The answer is something Stella never imagined.
Dead Madonna (Loon Lake #8)
by Victoria HoustonWhoever thought life in the Northwoods could be this dangerous?When the body of a lovely young woman is found floating beneath a party pontoon on a popular lake in northern Wisconsin on the same morning that a prominent widow is found bludgeoned in her gracious home, Loon Lake Police Chief Lew Ferris is caught short-handed.This is not a problem for Doc Osborne, whom she deputizes to act as coroner and to assist with the investigation. Fishing aside, there's nothing Osborne likes better than helping Lew--a world-class fly fisherman in her own right--delve into Loon Lake's criminal underworld. They're joined in their efforts to untangle two seemingly unrelated murders by walleye-expert, talented tracker, and teller of really bad jokes, Ray Pradt.A charming resort town on the surface, life in Loon Lake turns murky as bank officials soon discover that both victims' accounts have been looted--along with a dozen others. One grisly development after another further links the two murders even though the victims did not know each other. Wealthy Chicagoans, visiting entrepreneurs, and the young denizens of "Party Cove" complicate the scene.
Death of a Salaryman
by Fiona CampbellKenji Yamada has a critical wife, a hated mother-in-law and what he thinks is a job for life until his fortieth birthday teaches him otherwise. Initially too embarassed to tell his family that he has been fired, Kenji first befriends a travelling salesman with a passion for Elvis before taking up gambling, but his wife's outrage soon brings an end to this and sends him on a roller-coaster of misadventures.Via a bizarre chain of happenstance - including being struck by lightning while wielding a golf club - Kenji somehow finds himself responsible for a weirdly believable game show...Fiona Campbell's novel is a sparkling debut with graphic-novel sharpness, humour and poignancy.