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Uncommon Champions: Fifteen Athletes Who Battled Back
By Marty Kaminsky. 2000
These fifteen motivating stories prove that integrity and honor are not entirely missing from the playing fields. Readers will share…
the excitement as blind mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer scales the heights of Mount McKinley; as sprinter Gail Devers returns from a life-threatening illness to defend her Olympic title . . . and more. Despite facing incredible adversity, each of these stars found the heart and stamina to persevere.Being Dead in South Carolina
By Jacob White. 2013
Stories of the modern South, of people who no longer recognize themselves, who have arrived, like the Sunbelt itself, to…
a strange day that seems disconnected from all the old days, the old stories. Yet it's on this day we must always answer for ourselves&emdash;right an overturned car, recover a brother's body, convince a son of our worth and his.Stray Decorum
By George Singleton. 2012
My dog Tapeworm Johnson needed legitimate veterinary attention. It had been two years since she received annual shots. I read…
somewhere that an older dog can overdose on all these vaccinations, and I have found--I share this information with every dog owner I meet--that if you keep your pet away from rabid foxes, raccoons, skunks, bats, and people whose eyes rotate crazy in their sockets, then the chances of your own dog foaming at the mouth diminishes drastically. I also believe that dogs don't need microchips imbedded beneath their shoulder blades if you keep the dog leashed or in the house, or with the truck windows rolled up when you drive around showing the dog farm animals living in pastures. I brought this up to Dr. Page one time, back four years earlier when Tapeworm Johnson was somewhere between eight and nine. Tapeworm showed up at my door one morning, her ribs as visible as anything you'd order down at Clem and Lyda's Barbecue Shack off Scenic Highway 11, her paw pads split open from, I assumed, days traveling from wherever her conscienceless owner dropped her off. Eleven stories, all previously published in journals like The Atlantic, The Oxford American, and The Georgia Review, in which George Singleton brings small-town South Carolina alive. Using everyday situations like a dog needing its annual vaccination and buckets of humorous observations, Singleton pokes and prods his readers into realizing we're all simply restless for a pat on the head.La patria transpirada: Historias de la Argentina en los Mundiales desde 1930
By Juan Sasturain. 2018
Un recorrido por los Mundiales que jugó la Argentina -o mejor, por los Mundiales que jugamos-, desde 1930 hasta hoy.…
En la cancha la camiseta se debe honrar, defender y, sobre todo, transpirar. El sudor es a la camiseta, en el fútbol, lo que la sangre a la bandera en la guerra. De la camiseta transpirada a la bandera ensangrentada hay un paso, sin duda excesivo. Se dice "dar la vida" en el esfuerzo; sudar sangre, exactamente. Los simbólicos colores se exaltan con la humedad. Además, siempre quedan las lágrimas de reserva: una catarata de efusiones que prometió, enumeró Churchill durante un Mundial que no era ningún juego. Parece que éste tampoco lo será. Es increíble las cosas que ponemos en el juego de la pelota. En este libro se pasa revista a los Mundiales que jugó Argentina o -mejor- a los Mundiales que jugamos, por radio, por la tele, en vivo o de memoria, de oídas o por rebote familiar. La versión no puede ser sino personal, sentimental en el mejor de los sentidos: qué me pasó a mí -de pibe, de adolescente, de muchacho, y ahora ya veterano- cuando esos campeonatos del mundo nos pasaban a todos por arriba y por adentro. Los datos precisos respecto de planteles, resultados, jugadores, fechas y partidos quedan a un lado, fuera del relato, no tienen que ver sino como paisaje, escenografía. No conozco felicidad más desgraciada. Pero sabemos que vale la pena. Juan SasturainMillion Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner
By F. X. Toole. 1999
"In this remarkable collection . . . the spirit of Hemingway lives on." --The Wall Street Journal F. X. Toole…
knew boxing. Between bouts, he wrote, and two years before his death he published this collection of stories, giving readers an unprecedented look at the gritty life around the ring. He tells of a cutman with a sweet tooth, young fighters with dreams of celebrity, and a talented boxer who goes to Atlantic City for his biggest bout, only to be humiliated by the prejudices of a callous promoter. In "Million $$$ Baby," the inspiration for the Oscar-winning Clint Eastwood film, an aged trainer takes on a female fighter, guiding her through disappointment, pain, and tragedy. And in "Rope Burns," Toole realizes his epic vision, showing that even the purest fighter can succumb to the pressures of the world outside the sport. Throughout these stories, boxing's violence is redeemed by the respect these men and women share, as they strap on gloves and prepare their bodies for the ultimate test. This ebook features an illustrated biography of F. X. Toole including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author's estate.The Legend's Daughter
By David Kranes. 2013
A 15 Bytes 2014 Book Award Winner"In this exceptional collection of stories set mostly in Idaho in the deep backwoods…
along river banks and lonely county roads, Kranes' characters are all thrown out of their comfort zones. And so is the reader. Richly drawn and complex, these stories challenge the intellect. Kranes has managed to somehow dam the river of souls these stories possess. They do not lie still, however, between the covers but rather spin in far-reaching whirlpools of genuine humanity and mortality."-15 Bytes"There's something to be said about a writer whose style is easily recognized, whose voice stands out, whose stories are readily identified. What's remarkable about David Kranes's writing and these stories, though, is that each story stands out on its own merit, while every story is well crafted and conceived. Nothing one-dimensional about his people, nothing one dimensional about his prose, either."-ForeWord Reviews"From rainbow trout jumping in the Salmon River to watering holes on the edge of McCall Lake, each of the ten stories in author and playwright David Kranes's The Legend's Daughter transports the reader to the wilderness of Eastern Idaho. While Kranes renders a common setting in each story, the collection is not simply a detailed portrait of Idaho, but an examination of the lives of restless people seeking to escape from their lives and find peace."-ZYZZYVA"The Legend's Daughter is a story collection of real people struggling with identity, with love, with time, rooted in the rugged and indifferent beauty of Idaho where each character finds his or her mirror in water, in stone, in place. David Kranes shows how our tenacious love of life can transform any situation, large or small, into alchemy. We are all living inside these raw and well-drawn pages."-Terry Tempest Williams, author of When Women Were Birds"These Idaho stories are vintage David Kranes. He, more than any other writer, is the one whose work spurs me to reconsider what fiction can do. He uses language like a knife and the worlds in his stories come off the page at me. We haven't seen this Idaho before. I'm thrilled to have these stories, every one of them provocative, riveting, and robust."-Ron Carlson, author of The Signal"In these times of disconnection, David Kranes lassoes us with the delicate tether of his multiple gifts and brings us home . . . a storyteller and an elegant craftsman."-Mary Sojourner"David Kranes has given us ten stories, entirely various, often splendid, sometimes hilarious or heartbreaking."-William Kittredge, author of The Willow FieldGrind
By Mark Maynard. 2012
Convicts round up wild mustangs, a schizophrenic homeless man wins the jackpot and disappears, a truck driver with a child's…
mind spends his last hours in the embrace of a prostitute's photos-disparate and vivid, Mark Maynard's characters intersect in the new wild west of Reno, Nevada."Throughout the volume's eight tenuously linked tales, lives and fortune are lost, and the city of Reno emerges as a locus of shattered souls. Maynard's debut collection bursts with idiosyncratic characters...packs a strong emotional punch...is strangely entertaining."-Publishers Weekly"In Grind, Maynard reveals a world the Nevada tourism board would rather you didn't see...A debut collection of stories that perfectly captures the seediness, desperation and sense of loss permeating the hot desert world of Reno."-Shelf Awareness"Mark Maynard's Reno is so sleazily appealing, so filled with convict cowboys, wild horses, racing pilots, truckers, snow bums, eco-terrorists, tattoo conventions, pawnshops and jackpots that you emerge from reading Grind dazed by this author's empathy for neglected quarters of humanity. You feel gritty all over-and more alive."-Carolyn Cooke, author of Daughters of the Revolution"The characters in these stories are as beautiful and broken as the desert itself. Mark Maynard explores the stony truths of lost lives with an unflinching eye for detail, an insider's sense of the place and its people, and an honest compassion. The heartbreaks here are real, as are the moments of uncommon grace and hard-won redemption."-Kim Barnes, author of In the Kingdom of Men"Mark Maynard's Grind is chock full of men and women who are desperate with want and full of spirit. Pawnbrokers. Truckers. Casino shills. Prison inmates. They're all here, and they're all gloriously alive. This is prime American fiction-tough, generous, and open-eyed."-Alyson Hagy, author of Boleto"Grind is exactly what I like in a locally based book. Plenty of those characters who make a visit to the environs of Reno both an exciting potential and an illicit affair...This is a Northern Nevada book."-D. Brian Burghart, Reno News & ReviewBuying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather: Stories
By Mabel Lee, Xingjian Gao. 2004
Written between 1983 and 1990, these translated stories take as their themes the fragility of love and life, and the…
haunting power of memory. In "The Temple" the narrator's acute and mysterious anxiety overshadows the "delirious happiness" of an outing with his new wife on their honeymoon. In "The Cramp" a man narrowly escapes drowning in the sea, only to find that no one even noticed his absence. In "The Accident" a bus hits a cyclist and, as in stop-action film, the chaotic aftermath gives way to a calm, ordinary street comer with no trace of the previous drama. In the title story the narrator attempts to "unburden myself of homesickness" only to find himself lost in a labyrinth of childhood memories. Everywhere in this collection are powerful psychological portraits of characters whose unarticulated hopes and fears betray the never-ending presence of the past in their present lives."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights ReservedCrunch & Des: Classic Stories of Saltwater Fishing (Lyons Press Ser.)
By Philip Wylie, Karen Wylie Pryor. 2014
Philip Wylie's enthralling tales of saltwater fishing have been entertaining readers of the Saturday Evening Post since 1939. Captain Crunch…
Adams, skipper of the charter boat Poseidon , and his friend and partner Des Smith adventure high and low in the waters of Florida, coming face to face with big fish and bigger personalities along the way. Featuring 22 of Wylie's best Crunch and Des stories, this is a delightful compendium of every thrill fishing has to offer. These beloved adventures include: "Widow Voyage" "Light Tackle" "Fifty-four, Forty and Fight" "The Way of All Fish" "The Affair of the Ardent Amazon" "Smuggler's Cove" And more favorite classics!With each Crunch and Des story selected by the author's daughter, these tales begin a journey of saltwater nostalgia, marine adventure, and warmhearted personalities that will last far beyond the last page.Un poco de pasión y otros cuentos de fútbol (Flash Relatos #Volumen)
By Ana Maria Moix. 2012
Reunimos por primera vez tres cuentos de Ana María Moix dedicados a una de sus pasiones: el fútbol. ¿Qué pasa…
si un día, de repente, sucede que dejas de sentir los colores de tu equipo? ¿Es posible mantener el control sobre tus emociones mientras sigues un partido decisivo para los tuyos? ¿Existe alguna actividad más apropiada que el fútbol para socializar a un hijo? Ana María Moix reúne por primera vez en esta colección tres tentativas de explicar una pasión tan irracional como el fútbol. O la literatura.The Road: Short Fiction and Essays
By Vasily Grossman. 2010
By the author of Life and Fate, now a major Radio 4 drama starring Kenneth Branagh. Vasily Grossman is widely…
recognized as one of the outstanding literary figures of the twentieth century. The short fiction collected here - satire, comedy, tragedy and pure narrative - illustrate the remarkable breadth of his work, and demonstrate all the bold intelligence, delicate irony and extraordinary vividness for which he has become known. In addition to the eleven stories, this volume includes the complete text of 'The Hell of Treblinka', one of the first descriptions of a Nazi extermination camp; a powerful and harrowing piece of journalism written only weeks after the camp was dissolved. Beautifully illuminated by Robert Chandler's introductions and endnotes, with photographs from the family archive, and an Afterword by Grossman's stepson, Fyodor Guber.Open Secrets: The Extraordinary Battle for the 2009 Open
By Robert Winder. 2011
The Open Championship has been a high point of the British sporting calendar for 150 years, but few have been…
so memorable as in 2009. After four heady days on the fabled Turnberry links (one day it went see, the next it went saw) Tom Watson, an all-tim e great but nearly 60 and with an artificial hip, faced an eight-foot putt to become not just the oldest but also the most successful (along with Harry Vardon) player in Open history. The golfing world held its breath. History hung on the roll of a small white ball. As drama it verged upon the magical. Surely he couldn't prevail; surely he couldn't falter. But this was only one of hundreds of such moments. Robert Winder followed them all, from the start of the qualifying process to the dramatic last gasp. Here he traces the thrills and spills of a resonant sporting drama, listens to the players and administrators, and describes the many ways in which the Open truly is open: the world, to the elements, and to the neverending outrages of fortune.The People Immortal
By Vasily Grossman. 2022
One of Grossman's three great war novels - alongside Life and Fate and Stalingrad."A significant, valuable addition to Grossman's small…
but powerful body of work" WILLIAM BOYD"A remarkable novel that illuminates the terrible realities of Barbarossa and the banal horror of warfare with incomparable understanding and insight" JONATHAN DIMBLEBY"There are always good reasons for reading Grossman, but few times are as resonant as our own" Financial Times"At the heart of his writing lies a tireless humanity and empathy" Telegraph"Grossman combines a journalist's eye with a novelist's empathy" SpectatorSet during the catastrophic defeats of the war's first months, it tracks a Red Army regiment that wins a minor victory in eastern Belorussia but fails to exploit this success. A battalion is then entrusted with the task of slowing the German advance, and eventually encircled, before ultimately breaking out and joining with the rest of the Soviet forces.Grossman's descriptions of the natural world - and his characters' relationship to it - are both vivid and unexpected, as are his memorable character sketches: eleven-year-old Lionya is determined to hang on to his toy revolver as he walks a long distance behind German lines; his defiant grandmother slaps a German officer in the face and is shot; Kotenko, a fiercely anti-Soviet peasant who initially welcomes the Germans, hangs himself in despair when they treat him with contempt; and Semion Ignatiev, a womanizer and gifted story-teller, turns out to be the boldest and most resourceful of the rank-and file soldiers.Grossman spent most of the war years close to the front line. But The People Immortal is far from being mere morale-boosting propaganda. On the contrary, as letters included in this volume make clear, it was read as a textbook, and as a work of military education. This edition includes not only the unredacted novel itself, translated here for the first time since 1946, but also a wealth of background material.A heavily redacted English translation of The People Immortal was published in 1946. This current edition is the first that reflects Grossman's original text.Translated from the Russian by Robert and Elizabeth ChandlerSalsa Stories
By Lulu Delacre. 2000
An evocative collection of short stories by a three-time Pura Belpre honoree. Now available in paperback! When Carmen Teresa receives…
a notebook as a holiday gift, the guests suggest she write down their own childhood stories, which they tell . But Carmen Teresa, who loves to cook, collects their family recipes instead! With energy, sensitivity, and warmth, Lulu Delacre introduces readers to a symphony of colorful characters whose 9 stories dance through a year of Latin American holidays and customs. Countries include Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Guatamala and Peru. Seventeen delicious and authentic recipes are included.Open Secrets: The Extraordinary Battle for the 2009 Open
By Robert Winder. 2010
The Open Championship has been a high point of the British sporting calendar for 150 years, but few have been…
so memorable as in 2009. After four heady days on the fabled Turnberry links (one day it went see, the next it went saw) Tom Watson, an all-time great but nearly 60 and with an artificial hip, faced an eight-foot putt to become not just the oldest but also the most successful (along with Harry Vardon) player in Open history. The golfing world held its breath. History hung on the roll of a small white ball. As drama it verged upon the magical. Surely he couldn't prevail; surely he couldn't falter. But this was only one of hundreds of such moments. Robert Winder followed them all, from the start of the qualifying process to the dramatic last gasp. Here he traces the thrills and spills of a resonant sporting drama, listens to the players and administrators, and describes the many ways in which the Open truly is open: the world, to the elements, and to the neverending outrages of fortune.Open Secrets: The Extraordinary Battle for the 2009 Open
By Robert Winder. 2011
The Open Championship has been a high point of the British sporting calendar for 150 years, but few have been…
so memorable as in 2009. After four heady days on the fabled Turnberry links (one day it went see, the next it went saw) Tom Watson, an all-tim e great but nearly 60 and with an artificial hip, faced an eight-foot putt to become not just the oldest but also the most successful (along with Harry Vardon) player in Open history. The golfing world held its breath. History hung on the roll of a small white ball. As drama it verged upon the magical. Surely he couldn't prevail; surely he couldn't falter. But this was only one of hundreds of such moments. Robert Winder followed them all, from the start of the qualifying process to the dramatic last gasp. Here he traces the thrills and spills of a resonant sporting drama, listens to the players and administrators, and describes the many ways in which the Open truly is open: the world, to the elements, and to the neverending outrages of fortune.