Author: Yossi Ghinsberg
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1510718702
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 307
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Book Description
Four travelers meet in Bolivia and set off into the heart of the Amazon rainforest, but what begins as a dream adventure quickly deteriorates into a dangerous nightmare, and after weeks of wandering in the dense undergrowth, the four backpackers split up into two groups. But when a terrible rafting accident separates him from his partner, Yossi is forced to survive for weeks alone against one of the wildest backdrops on the planet. Stranded without a knife, map, or survival training, he must improvise shelter and forage for wild fruit to survive. As his feet begin to rot during raging storms, as he loses all sense of direction, and as he begins to lose all hope, he wonders whether he will make it out of the jungle alive. The basis of an upcoming motion picture starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jungle is the story of friendship and the teachings of nature, and a terrifying true account that you won’t be able to put down.
Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393354261
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384
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Book Description
The movie The Zookeeper’s Wife, based on the New York Times bestselling book, opens March 2017. 1939: the Germans have invaded Poland. The keepers of the Warsaw zoo, Jan and Antonina Zabinski, survive the bombardment of the city, only to see the occupiers ruthlessly kill many of their animals. The Nazis then carry off the prized specimens to Berlin for their program to create the “purest” breeds, much as they saw themselves as the purest human race. Opposed to all the Nazis represented, the Zabinskis risked their lives by hiding Jews in the now-empty animal cages, saving as many as three hundred people from extermination. Acclaimed, best-selling author Diane Ackerman, fascinated both by the Zabinskis’ courage and by Antonina’s incredible sensitivity to all living beings, tells a moving and dramatic story of the power of empathy and the strength of love. A Focus Features release, it is directed by Niki Caro, written by Angela Workman.
Author: Gary Webb
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 1609806212
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 601
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Book Description
Major Motion Picture based on Dark Alliance and starring Jeremy Renner, "Kill the Messenger," to be be released in Fall 2014 In August 1996, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb stunned the world with a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News reporting the results of his year-long investigation into the roots of the crack cocaine epidemic in America, specifically in Los Angeles. The series, titled “Dark Alliance,” revealed that for the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions in drug profits to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras. Gary Webb pushed his investigation even further in his book, Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Drawing from then newly declassified documents, undercover DEA audio and videotapes that had never been publicly released, federal court testimony, and interviews, Webb demonstrates how our government knowingly allowed massive amounts of drugs and money to change hands at the expense of our communities. Webb’s own stranger-than-fiction experience is also woven into the book. His excoriation by the media—not because of any wrongdoing on his part, but by an insidious process of innuendo and suggestion that in effect blamed Webb for the implications of the story—had been all but predicted. Webb was warned off doing a CIA expose by a former Associated Press journalist who lost his job when, years before, he had stumbled onto the germ of the “Dark Alliance” story. And though Internal investigations by both the CIA and the Justice Department eventually vindicated Webb, he had by then been pushed out of the Mercury News and gone to work for the California State Legislature Task Force on Government Oversight. He died in 2004.
Author: Charles Willeford
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1647001897
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 188
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Book Description
A driven art critic’s plan to steal a painting leads to murder in this classic neo-noir novel by the author of the Hoke Moseley series. Fast-talking, backstabbing, womanizing, and fiercely ambitious art critic James Figueras will do anything—blackmail, burglary, and beyond—to make a name for himself. When an unscrupulous collector offers Figueras a career-making chance to interview Jacques Debierue, the greatest living—and most reclusive—artist, the critic must decide how far he will go to become the art-world celebrity he hungers to be. Will Figueras stop at the opportunity to skim some cream for himself or push beyond morality’s limits to a bigger payoff? Crossing the art world with the underworld, Willeford creates a novel of dark hue and high aesthetic polish. The Burnt Orange Heresy—the 1970s crime classic now back in print—has lost none of its savage delights as it re-creates the making of a murderer, calmly and with exquisite tension, while satirizing the workings of the art world as the ultimate con. Now a major motion picture starring Donald Sutherland and Mick Jagger Praise for The Burnt Orange Heresy “Stunning . . . A novel full of genuine fun that also manages to make a level statement about the art world and its hermetic credulities.” —New Yorker
Author: Vincent Bugliosi
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393347621
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 688
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Book Description
“Bugliosi has definitively explained the murder that recalibrated modern America.” —Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times Book Review Parkland (originally titled Four Days in November) is the exciting and definitive narrative of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Releasing this fall, the movie—starring Paul Giamatti, Zac Efron, Jacki Weaver, and Billy Bob Thornton—follows a group of individuals making split-second decisions after this incomprehensible event: the doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital, the chief of the Dallas Secret Service, the cameraman who captured what has become the most examined film in history, the FBI agents who had gunman Lee Harvey Oswald within their grasp, and Vice President Lyndon Johnson who had to take control of the country at a moment’s notice. Based on Vincent Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History—Parkland is the story of that day—the movie is produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman (Game Change, Charlie Wilson’s War), Nigel Sinclair (End of Watch, Snitch), Matt Jackson (End of Watch, Snitch), and Bill Paxton, and written and directed by Peter Landesman.
Author: Michael Lewis
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039333838X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 348
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Book Description
Follows one young man from his impoverished childhood with a crack-addicted mother, through his discovery of the sport of football, to his rise to become one of the most successful, highly-paid players in the NFL.
Author: Michael J. Bellito
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing
ISBN: 1682357821
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 80
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Book Description
The importance of baseball in the author’s life is evident in his short story “The Legacy of the Diamond.” I park the Dodge station wagon in front of Graceland Cemetery, where Chicago history is carved into large granite tombstones. Famous names adorn these structures: Carter Harrison, mayor of Chicago during the “Haymarket Square” riots; Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion; and architect Mies van der Rohe. The oddest marker sits atop the grave of William A. Hulbert, the dynamic organizer of baseball’s oldest league. It is a baseball-shaped headstone with the names of the eight original National League cities etched into white stone. Legend has it that on a clear summer’s day, the cheers from Wrigley Field a half-mile away carry on a Lake Michigan breeze to the cemetery and keep Hulbert resting in peaceful bliss. In the book’s first tale, “The Absolutely True Story of the Homemade Beatles Tie,” the 14-year-old author is coming of age in Middle America. It is the winter of 1964, January to be precise, when our story begins. The United States was still mourning the loss of its dashing young president to a hail of bullets. My family, like so many others, had a difficult time celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas in the weeks following the majestic funeral. My father was deeply touched by John Kennedy’s death. After all, they were the same age, they had fought in the same war, and they were raising their families at the same time. A void was left for my dad’s generation in America that could not be filled. Herein rest ten short stories (four new, six old). From a boy’s adventure with his grandfather, to a tragedy set in the present day, to a magical Beatles tie made from scratch, these tales were written to captivate readers of all ages. In the book’s first tale, “The Homemade Beatles Tie” turns into something magical when it’s worn to the first dance, turning the author into the most popular guy at the party. This is the sixth book by Michael J. Bellito. He taught speech and English classes at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and also taught at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois. His first book was Ten Again, a story about 1960s America. Then came First Time Around, a story about a young boy falling in love for the first time. Next was Abner’s Story, a tale of a senior citizen and two young boys following the Cubs baseball team. The Silent Journey was a nonfiction book about recovering from a stroke. Last is The Hilltop, about a young man’s days in college from 1968 to 1972.
Author: Mary L. Gazdik
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 160
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Book Description
This guide shows youth librarians how to use the appeal of Minecraft—a game that many young learners are intensely passionate about—to create engaging library programs that encourage creativity and build STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) learning through library programs. Minecraft is more than "just a video game"; it's a powerful tool that librarians and other educators can use to engage students and spark legitimate learning experiences. This book shows you how to use Minecraft as a vehicle to promote learning and creativity, supplying specific, easy-to-replicate programs, ideas, and instructions for hands-on activities. By connecting the game to the maker movement and building off the game's popularity, you'll be able to use Minecraft to promote STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) learning. The book ties Minecraft to maker activities, learning in the library, three-dimensional printing, literary activities, crafting, and more. The activities in this book will also enable you to help children ages 8–14 to expand their key 21st-century skills, such as collaboration, trial and error, and discovery.
Author: Frank X. Ryan
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438473257
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 476
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Book Description
A full account of the Metaphysical Club, featuring the members’ philosophical writings and four critical essays. The Metaphysical Club, a gathering of intellectuals in the 1870s, is widely recognized as the crucible where pragmatism, America’s distinctively original philosophy, was refined and proclaimed. Louis Menand’s bestseller about the group was a dramatic publishing success. However, only three actual members—Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Charles S. Peirce, and William James—appear in the book, alongside other thinkers who were never in the Club. The Real Metaphysical Club tells the full story of how this influential group shifted the course of philosophy in America. In addition to pioneering pragmatism, the group explored radical empiricism and idealism, and formulated personalism and process philosophy, equally important developments. This volume contains the important writings dating from 1870 to 1885 by the real members of the Metaphysical Club. The first section centers on pragmatism and science; the second part collects writings of the lawyers; and the third part covers idealist and personalist philosophers. Many of these writings have never been reprinted before, and nothing like this impressive collection has ever been attempted. A general introduction provides a narrative history, and the editors’ three introductions to the volume’s sections vividly bring to life the intense meetings, sustained debates, and pioneering thought of the Metaphysical Club. “The Real Metaphysical Club includes some very important thinkers that don’t always make it into anthologies of American philosophy. The period is also important. 1870 to 1885 is critical to the development of classical American philosophy. It precedes it and sets its direction. The book accomplishes its goal of giving the reader a sense of the period by arranging the works in a very interesting way. The readings and introduction are very readable and would be helpful to both graduate and undergraduate students as well as general readers interested in American Thought.” — James M. McLachlan, Western Carolina University
Author: Martin Sixsmith
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1447245334
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 376
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Book Description
Inspiring the film starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, and directed by Stephen Frears, Philomena is the tale of a mother and a son whose lives were scarred by the forces of hypocrisy on both sides of the Atlantic and of the secrets they were forced to keep. With a foreword by Judi Dench, Martin Sixsmith's book is a compelling and deeply moving narrative of human love and loss, both heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive. When she fell pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to the convent at Roscrea in Co. Tipperary to be looked after as a fallen woman. She cared for her baby for three years until the Church took him from her and sold him, like countless others, to America for adoption. Coerced into signing a document promising never to attempt to see her child again, she nonetheless spent the next fifty years secretly searching for him, unaware that he was searching for her from across the Atlantic. Philomena's son, renamed Michael Hess, grew up to be a top Washington lawyer and a leading Republican official in the Reagan and Bush administrations. But he was a gay man in a homophobic party where he had to conceal not only his sexuality but, eventually, the fact that he had AIDS. With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent where he was born: his desperate quest to find his mother before he died left a legacy that was to unfold with unexpected consequences for all involved.
