Download or read book Eddie Krumble Is the Clapper written by Dito Montiel and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2007-03-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet Eddie Krumble. He's a relatively happy guy. Content-ish. Fresh to Los Angeles, Eddie and his friend Chris Plork land their first gig: clapping as paid audience members for infomercials and sitcoms so heinous that tourists won't even attend. Eddie spends long days clapping, laughing, and hissing — on cue, of course — and his life slowly begins to take shape as a relationship with Judy, a gas station attendant, begins to brew. Suddenly his life is turned on its head. In one of his nightly rants, Jay Leno scrutinizes the state of late night TV and ends up unveiling two stills of Eddie as audience members for two different infomercials. Eddie is singled out as clapper-for-hire, Eddie's career comes to a halt, and Leno turns his discovery into a segment on his show: "Who is THE CLAPPER?" takes the public by storm, and Eddie's face appears on TVs and billboards throughout the nation. A clever satire about fame, consumerism, and reality TV, Dito Montiel's Eddie Krumble is The Clapper is the first work of fiction from the acclaimed author of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.

Download or read book Eddie Krumble Is the Clapper written by Dito Montiel and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2017-05-23 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Entry in the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival From the author and director of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints comes a clever satire about fame, consumerism, and reality TV Meet Eddie Krumble. He's a relatively happy guy. Content-ish. Fresh to Los Angeles, Eddie and his friend Chris Plork land their first gig: clapping as paid audience members for infomercials and sitcoms so heinous that tourists won't even attend. Eddie spends long days clapping, laughing, and hissing--on cue, of course--and his life slowly takes shape as a relationship with Judy, a gas station attendant, begins to brew. Suddenly it's all turned on its head when Jay Leno, in one of his nightly rants, unveils two stills of Eddie as audience member for two different infomercials. Eddie is singled out as clapper-for-hire, causing his career to come to a halt, and Leno turns his discovery into a recurring segment on his show. "Who is THE CLAPPER?" takes the public by storm, and Eddie's face appears on TVs and billboards throughout the nation. An uproarious satire, Eddie Krumble Is the Clapper is sure to mark the beginning of Montiel's long literary career in fiction.

Download or read book Arcadia written by Lauren Groff and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2012-03-13 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A staggering portrait of a crumbling utopia, this "timeless and vast" novel filled with the "raw beauty" beautifully depicts an idyllic commune in New York State -- and charts its eventual yet inevitable downfall (Janet Maslin, The New York Times). NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Timeless and vast... The raw beauty of Ms. Groff's prose is one of the best things about Arcadia. But it is by no means this book's only kind of splendor."---Janet Maslin, The New York Times "Even the most incidental details vibrate with life Arcadia wends a harrowing path back to a fragile, lovely place you can believe in."---Ron Charles, The Washington Post In the fields of western New York State in the 1970s, a few dozen idealists set out to live off the land, founding a commune centered on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House. Arcadia follows this romantic utopian dream from its hopeful start through its heyday. Arcadia's inhabitants include Handy, the charismatic leader; his wife, Astrid, a midwife; Abe, a master carpenter; Hannah, a baker and historian; and Abe and Hannah's only child, Bit. While Arcadia rises and falls, Bit, too, ages and changes. He falls in love with Helle, Handy's lovely, troubled daughter. And eventually he must face the world beyond Arcadia. In Arcadia, Groff displays her literary gifts to stunning effect. "Fascinating."---People (****) "It's not possible to write any better without showing off."---Richard Russo, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Empire Falls "Dazzling."---Vogue

Download or read book Shopgirl written by Steve Martin and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2001-07-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most acclaimed and beloved entertainers, Steve Martin is quickly becoming recognized as a gorgeous writer capable of being at once melancholy and tart, achingly innocent and astonishingly ironic (Elle). A frequent contributor to both The New Yorker and the New York Times as well as the author of the New York Times bestseller Pure Drivel, Martin is once again poised to capture the attention of readers with his debut novella, a delightful depiction of life and love. The shopgirl is Mirabelle, a beautiful aspiring artist who pays the rent by selling gloves at the Beverly Hills Neiman Marcus. She captures the attention of Ray Porter, a wealthy, lonely businessman. As Ray and Mirabelle tentatively embark on a relationship, they both struggle to decipher the language of love--with consequences that are both comic and heartbreaking. Filled with the kind of witty, discerning observations that have brought Steve Martin incredible critical success, Shopgirl is a work of disarming tenderness.

Download or read book No Man s Land written by Duong Thu Huong and published by Hyperion. This book was released on 2005-04-13 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Central Vietnam. 1975. A young peasant woman, happily married to a successful farmer, returns to her house in the countryside to find a thong of villagers assembled around her gate. She learns that her first husband - who reportedly died as a martyr and war hero many years earlier - is in fact alive and has returned to claim her. Faced with immense pressure from the community and the Party authorities, she agrees to leave her second husband and their son to live in a squalid shack with the veteran." "This tragic twist of fate sets the stage for Duong Thu Huong's tale of three individuals whose destinies are inextricably linked and irrevocably altered by the absurdity of war. As the riveting story unfolds, each of the parties in this fateful love triangle struggles to reconcile personal happiness with traditional values of duty and selflessness. Together, these characters offer a devastating portrait of a people sacrificed on the altar of war and to a cult of heroism."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book The Garden of Evening Mists written by Tan Twan Eng and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “elegant and haunting novel of war, art and memory" (The Independent) award-winning novel from the acclaimed author of The Gift of Rain follows the only Malaysian survivor of a Japanese wartime camp as she begins working for an exiled former gardener of the Emporer. Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp. Aritomo refuses but agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice "until the monsoon comes." Then she can design a garden for herself. As the months pass, Yun Ling finds herself intimately drawn to the gardener and his art, while all around them a communist guerilla war rages. But the Garden of Evening Mists remains a place of mystery. Who is Aritomo and how did he come to leave Japan? And is the real story of how Yun Ling managed to survive the war perhaps the darkest secret of all?

Download or read book One Amazing Thing written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2010-02-02 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An acclaimed novel by the author of The Mistress of Spices, and Before We Visit the Goddess. Jhumpa Lahiri praises: "One Amazing Thing collapses the walls dividing characters and cultures; what endures is a chorus of voices in one single room." Late afternoon sun sneaks through the windows of a passport and visa office in an unnamed American city. Most customers and even most office workers have come and gone, but nine people remain. A punky teenager with an unexpected gift. An upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is disintegrating. A young Muslim-American man struggling with the fallout of 9/11. A graduate student haunted by a question about love. An African-American ex-soldier searching for redemption. A Chinese grandmother with a secret past. And two visa office workers on the verge of an adulterous affair. When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, "one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself. From Chitra Divakaruni, author of such finely wrought, bestselling novels as Sister of My Heart, The Palace of Illusions, and The Mistress of Spices, comes her most compelling and transporting story to date. One Amazing Thing is a passionate creation about survival -- and about the reasons to survive.

Download or read book Our Twisted Hero written by Mun-yŏl Yi and published by Hyperion. This book was released on 2001-02-28 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After 12-year-old Han Pyongt'ae moves from Seoul to a small provincial town and enrolls in the local school, he's confident that his sophistication will establish him as a natural leader among his peers. He is shocked to find his new classmates and teacher under the spell of the charismatic class monitor, who uses fear and violence to keep the class in line.

Download or read book The Gift of Rain written by Tan Twan Eng and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2009-05-05 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell. The recipient of extraordinary acclaim from critics and the bookselling community, Tan Twan Eng's debut novel casts a powerful spell and has garnered comparisons to celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene. Set during the tumult of World War II, on the lush Malayan island of Penang, The Gift of Rain tells a riveting and poignant tale about a young man caught in the tangle of wartime loyalties and deceits. In 1939, sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton-the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang's great trading families-feels alienated from both the Chinese and British communities. He at last discovers a sense of belonging in his unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat. Philip proudly shows his new friend around his adored island, and in return Endo teaches him about Japanese language and culture and trains him in the art and discipline of aikido. But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. When the Japanese savagely invade Malaya, Philip realizes that his mentor and sensei-to whom he owes absolute loyalty-is a Japanese spy. Young Philip has been an unwitting traitor, and must now work in secret to save as many lives as possible, even as his own family is brought to its knees.

Download or read book I Do Not Come to You by Chance written by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2009-05-14 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Sparklingly funny' Wired Magazine '[Nwaubani] not merely explores a side of modern existence that touches millions every day, but does so with wit, warmth and insight' Independent 'Beautifully written' Sunday Herald Kingsley is fresh out of university, eager to find an engineering job so he can support his family and marry the girl of his dreams. Being the opara of the family, he is entitled to certain privileges - a piece of meat in his egusi soup, a party to celebrate his graduation. But times are hard in Nigeria and jobs are not easy to come by. For much of his young life, Kingsley believed that education was everything, that through wisdom, all things were possible. But when a tragedy befalls his family, Kingsley learns the hardest lesson of all: education may be the language of success in his country, but it is money that does the talking. In desperation he turns to his uncle, Boniface-aka Cash Daddy-an exuberant character who suffers from elephantiasis of the pocket. He is also rumoured to run a successful empire of email scams. But he can help. With Cash Daddy's intervention, Kingsley and his family can be as safe as a tortoise under its shell. It is up to Kingsley now, to reconcile his passion for knowledge with his hunger for money, to fully assume his role of first son. But can he do it without being drawn into this outlandish milieu?

Download or read book We Are What We Pretend To Be written by Perseus and published by Vanguard Press. This book was released on 2012-10-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vonnegut was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

Download or read book A guide to recognizing your saints written by Dito Montiel and published by Revolver. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This quintessentially American story of a young man's hunger for experience is a streetwise "Meetings with Remarkable Men" with echoes of Whitman and Kerouac. Includes photos by Bruce Weber and Allen Ginsburg.

Download or read book From Boys to Men written by Ted Gideonse and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than an anthology of coming out stories, From Boys to Men is a stunning collection of essays about what it is like to be gay and young, to be different and be aware of that difference from the earliest of ages. In these memoirs, coming out is less important than coming of age and coming to the realization that young gay people experience the world in ways quite unlike straight boys. Whether it is a fascination with soap opera, an intense sensitivity to their own difference, or an obsession with a certain part of the male anatomy, gay kids — or kids who would eventually identify as gay — have an indefinable but unmistakable gay sensibility. Sometimes the result is funny, sometimes it is harrowing, and often it is deeply moving. Essays by lauded young writers like Alex Chee (Edinburgh), Aaron Hamburger (Faith for Beginners), Karl Soehnlein (The World of Normal Boys), Trebor Healy (Through It Came Bright Colors), Tom Dolby (The Trouble Boy), David Bahr, and Austin Bunn, are collected along with those by brilliant, newcomers such as Michael McAllister, Jason Tougaw, Viet Dinh, and the wildly popular blogger, Joe.My.God.

Download or read book Before We Visit the Goddess written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A new novel from the author of Oleander Girl, a novel in stories, built around crucial moments in the lives of 3 generations of women in an Indian/Indian-American Family"--

Download or read book Lulu in Hollywood written by Louise Brooks and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Louise Brooks (1906-1985), one of the most famous actresses of the silent era, was renowned as much for her rebellion against Hollywood as for her performances in such classics as Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Collected here are eight autobiographical essays by Brooks, vividly describing her childhood in Kansas, her early career as a Denishawn dancer and Ziegfeld Follies "Glorified Girl," and her friendships with Martha Graham, Charles Chaplin, W. C. Fields, Humphrey Bogart and others."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Download or read book Starfish on Thursday written by Amie Ryan and published by . This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: a collection of 23 essays by Seattle author Amie Ryan. Topics range from the humorous to the moving, all of them involving American culture.

Download or read book The Color of Money written by Walter Tevis and published by Rosetta Books. This book was released on 2014-09-29 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A legendary pool hustler tries to make a comeback in the novel that inspired the Martin Scorsese film: “A great read, entertainment of a high order” (Los Angeles Times). Fast Eddie Felson was the best in the country. Then he walked out on his talent. He ran a poolroom for the next twenty years, got married, and watched pool games on television. One evening he watches a pool player who reminds him of his old rival, Minnesota Fats, and it sparks something in him. Feeling a sudden grief at the loss of his old self and his old life, he leaves behind his business—and his marriage—and finds Fats, now retired in the Florida Keys. Now the pair is about to embark on a tour of the country together. Eddie hopes to recapture his glory days, but the journey will come with a price . . . The author of the classic The Hustler, which also features Fast Eddie Felson, “is unequaled when it comes to creating and sustaining the tension of a high stakes game. Even readers who have never lifted a cue will be captivated” (Publishers Weekly). “Tevis writes about pool with power and poetry and tension. From the opening scene of this fine book, the reunion between Eddie and Fats twenty years after, the staccato beat of the prose and finely drawn characters grab the reader and don’t let go. You don’t have to like pool to like this book, to appreciate its sense of living on the edge.” —The Washington Post