Download or read book A Most Beautiful Thing written by Arshay Cooper and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: REGIONAL BESTSELLER Now a documentary narrated by Common, produced by Grant Hill, Dwyane Wade, and 9th Wonder, from filmmaker Mary Mazzio The moving true story of a group of young men growing up on Chicago's West side who form the first all-Black high school rowing team in the nation, and in doing so not only transform a sport, but their lives. Growing up on Chicago’s Westside in the 90’s, Arshay Cooper knows the harder side of life. The street corners are full of gangs, the hallways of his apartment complex are haunted by drug addicts he calls “zombies” with strung out arms, clutching at him as he passes by. His mother is a recovering addict, and his three siblings all sleep in a one room apartment, a small infantry against the war zone on the street below. Arshay keeps to himself, preferring to write poetry about the girl he has a crush on, and spends his school days in the home-ec kitchen dreaming of becoming a chef. And then one day as he’s walking out of school he notices a boat in the school lunchroom, and a poster that reads “Join the Crew Team”. Having no idea what the sport of crew is, Arshay decides to take a chance. This decision to join is one that will forever change his life, and those of his fellow teammates. As Arshay and his teammates begin to come together to learn how to row--many never having been in water before--the sport takes them from the mean streets of Chicago, to the hallowed halls of the Ivy League. But Arshay and his teammates face adversity at every turn, from racism, gang violence, and a sport that has never seen anyone like them before. A Most Beautiful Thing is the inspiring true story about the most unlikely band of brothers that form a family, and forever change a sport and their lives for the better.
Download or read book What s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know about Horses written by Richard Van Camp and published by Children's Book Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On January's coldest day of the year in a small community in the Northwest Territories, a stranger to horses searches among family and friends for answers to an important question. It's forty below in the little town of Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories of Canada -- so cold that the ravens refuse to fly and author Richard Van Camp can't go outside. He belongs to the Dogrib tribe, whose people traditionally haven't used horses. To help pass the time, he decides to pose the question, "What's the most beautiful thing you know about horses?" to family members, friends, and artist George Littlechild, who is Plains Cree and knows a lot about horses. The answers range from zany to profound: Horses can run sideways; they have secrets; they can always find their way home. In this delightful new book, Littlechild's fanciful paintings perfectly capture Van Camp's gentle world-view. Together, they inspire readers to see the world in entirely new ways.
Download or read book The Most Beautiful Thing written by Kao Kalia Yang and published by Millbrook Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A warmhearted and tender true story about a young girl finding beauty where she never thought to look. Drawn from author Kao Kalia Yang's childhood experiences as a Hmong refugee, this moving picture book portrays a family with a great deal of love and little money. Weaving together Kalia's story with that of her beloved grandmother, the book moves from the jungles of Laos to the family's early years in the United States. When Kalia becomes unhappy about having to do without and decides she wants braces to improve her smile, it is her grandmother—a woman who has just one tooth in her mouth—who helps her see that true beauty is found with those we love most. Stunning illustrations from Vietnamese illustrator Khoa Le bring this intergenerational tale to life. "A deep and moving reflection on enduring hardship and generational love. . . . Poignant storytelling with stunning visuals."—starred, Kirkus Reviews "A sincere narrative that centers on the power of family love."—starred, School Library Journal Minnesota Book Award Finalist, ALA Notable Children's Book, New York Public Library Best Book for Kids, NPR Best Book of the Year
Download or read book Beautiful Thing written by Jonathan Harvey and published by Dramatists Play Service Inc. This book was released on 1999 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE STORY: Jamie and Ste (short for Steve) are teenage neighbors in a working-class housing project in London. Jamie is bookish and shy while Ste is more athletic. Neither one has an ideal home life: Jamie's mother Sandra is bitter over her financi
Download or read book Beautiful Thing written by Sonia Faleiro and published by Grove Atlantic. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Both a tragic monument to the abused bar girls of Bombay and a celebration of their amazing resilience and spirit.”—William Dalrymple, bestselling author of The Anarchy Published in India to great acclaim and named a Time Out Subcontinental Book of the Year and an Observer Book of the Year, Beautiful Thing is a stunning piece of journalism that offers a rare firsthand glimpse into Bombay’s notorious sex industry. Sonia Faleiro was a reporter in search of a story when she met nineteen-year-old Leela, a charismatic exotic dancer with a story to tell. Leela introduced Sonia to the underworld of Bombay’s dance bars: a world of glamorous women; of fierce love, sex, and violence; of gangsters, police, prostitutes, and pimps. When an ambitious politician cashed in on a tide of false morality and had Bombay’s dance bars wiped out, Leela’s proud independence faced its greatest test. In a city where almost everyone is certain that someone, somewhere, is worse off than them, she fights to survive—and to win. In Beautiful Thing, Sonia Faleiro has crafted one of the most original works about India in years, an “intimate and valuable book of literary reportage . . . [that] will break your heart several times over” (The New York Times). “Reporting at its best.”—Junot Díaz, The Rumpus “A glimpse into a frightening subculture . . . In lesser hands, these young people could have come off as clichés, but the author makes sure we care for them and root for them to survive a life that most will never understand. Gritty, gripping, and often heartbreaking—an impressive piece of narrative nonfiction.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Download or read book Songs written by Don Walker and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2019-07-01 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over forty years, Don Walker’s songwriting has captured what it is to be Australian. From Cold Chisel to Catfish, Tex, Don & Charlie to his solo work, as well as many other writing collaborations, Walker’s words are poetic, moving and incisive. Including classics such as “Khe Sanh”, “Flame Trees”, “Cheap Wine” and “Harry was a Bad Bugger”, this collection reveals the breadth of Walker’s vision and the precision of his prose. These lyrics live on the page, with or without the memory of music. Interspersed with autobiographical sketches and anecdotes, Songs is a must-have for fans of Walker’s brilliant, razor-sharp storytelling. Includes a foreword by Jimmy Barnes ‘Pithy, poignant, and provocative, Don Walker is the Poet Laureate of Australian rock 'n’ roll.’ —Mandy Sayer ‘As ever, the doyen to the rest of us. Beauty, humour and pathos coexist in his songs. Any time I try to write, the voice of The Don is in my head: “You sure you wanna do that?” Consistently, persistently, the master.’ —Tim Rogers ‘Pithy, acerbic, dry and deeper than a drought-ridden dam. Don’s words are truly a thing of wonder.’ —Peter Garrett ‘One of the great poets of the Australian experience. His lyrics speak of and to an Australia that is too rarely glimpsed in song, giving voice to the forgotten and dispossessed, and transforming the currents of grief and love and tenderness that run through even the most ordinary of lives into something universal.’ —James Bradley ‘Walker is one of our great storytellers. As much a keeper of the flame as Lawson, Carey or White. But he cuts to the burning heart with far fewer words.’ —John Birmingham
Download or read book The Most Beautiful Thing I ve Seen written by Lisa Gungor and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2018-06-26 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lisa Gungor thought she knew her own story: small-town girl meets boy in college and they blissfully walk down the aisle into happily ever after. Their Christian faith was their lens and foundation for everything—their marriage, their music, their dreams for the future. But as their dreams began to come true, she began to wonder if her religion was really representative of the ‘good news’ she had been taught. She never expected the questions to lead as far as they did when her husband told her he no longer believed in God. The death of a friend, the unraveling of relationships and career, the loss of a worldview, and the birth of a baby girl with two heart defects all led Lisa to a tumultuous place; one of depression and despair. And it was there that her perspective on everything changed. The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen tells the story of what can happen when you dare to let go of what you think to be true; to shift the kaleidoscope and see new colors and dimension by way of broken pieces. Lisa’s eloquent, soul-stirring memoir brings you to a music stage before thousands of fans and a front porch where two people whisper words that scare them to the core. It is the story of how doubt can spark the beginning of deeper faith; how a baby born with a broken heart can bring love and healing to the hearts of many, and ultimately, how the hardest experience in life often ends up saving us.
Download or read book Life It s a Beautiful Thing written by Laura Schaufel and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2011-10-07 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life, its a Beautiful Thing is Laura Schaufels technique of spreading the love of God. It is her method of expectantly accomplishing a desired aim. Touching lives spiritually is her intent and purpose, promoting faith, hope, and inspiration. Laura Schaufel is a witness to the power of prayer. She testifies to an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs that happened in 1990, in Folsom, California. This little book is an account of astonishing and noteworthy happenings of an ordinary woman who lives in the knowledge that God has a purpose, a destiny, and a plan for each of us. God has been showing her His plan all of her life through acts and actions that only now does she, to some extent, understand. As she stood in that cold mechanical hospital room listening to her son fight for just one more breath of air, she prayed to God to let him live. Please return him to me for whatever time I may have, here on earth, she asked. But the plans laid out in heaven for that day called for her son to return home to our Father. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (James 4:14 NKJV) In the midst of deaths storm is when your faith and the presence of the Lord are most needed to provide the strength to persevere. Look and listen to these true stories of God working in His way. Then see how you can reach the point in prayer where you are at ease with the world and can accept all of Gods plans for you as your destiny unfolds.
Download or read book Such a Beautiful Thing to Behold written by Umar Turaki and published by Little a. This book was released on 2022-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inexplicable sickness. A small town cut off from the world. An unexpected community of survivors forges a family out of the despair, struggling against things known and unknown for survival and hope. A mysterious plague known as the Grey grips the small village of Pilam, which the world has quarantined without pity. Laying waste to Pilam's residents, the sickness saps its victims of strength, drains the color from their eyes, and kills all promise. Only the young are immune. But beyond the barricades and walls of soldiers--the manifestation of a nation's terror--there are rumors of a cure. Dunka, the eldest son of a family reeling from the Grey, takes on the daunting task of leaving Pilam to find that cure for his siblings and save them before it's too late. His brother and sisters, however, have plans of their own. Navigating the chaos of violence, hunger, and death, each of them tries to make sense of the bleak circumstances, forging new bonds with other juvenile survivors left to their own devices. Now an unlikely family of six, they choose their own perilous paths, at first separately and then together, coming to terms with the decisions they make and the ghosts they cannot leave behind. Umar Turaki's gripping novel is a story of survival, love, and the human spirit's tenacious capacity for wonder.
Download or read book Enemies written by Tim Weiner and published by Random House Incorporated. This book was released on 2012 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the history of the FBI's secret intelligence operations, detailing how the bureau has been used to conduct political warfare, and how it became the most powerful intelligence service in the United States.
Download or read book Big Wonderful Thing written by Stephen Harrigan and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 944 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Texas is the story of struggle and triumph in a land of extremes. It is a story of drought and flood, invasion and war, boom and bust, and of the myriad peoples who, over centuries of conflict, gave rise to a place that has helped shape the identity of the United States and the destiny of the world. “I couldn’t believe Texas was real,” the painter Georgia O’Keeffe remembered of her first encounter with the Lone Star State. It was, for her, “the same big wonderful thing that oceans and the highest mountains are.” Big Wonderful Thing invites us to walk in the footsteps of ancient as well as modern people along the path of Texas’s evolution. Blending action and atmosphere with impeccable research, New York Times best-selling author Stephen Harrigan brings to life with novelistic immediacy the generations of driven men and women who shaped Texas, including Spanish explorers, American filibusters, Comanche warriors, wildcatters, Tejano activists, and spellbinding artists—all of them taking their part in the creation of a place that became not just a nation, not just a state, but an indelible idea. Written in fast-paced prose, rich with personal observation and a passionate sense of place, Big Wonderful Thing calls to mind the literary spirit of Robert Hughes writing about Australia or Shelby Foote about the Civil War. Like those volumes it is a big book about a big subject, a book that dares to tell the whole glorious, gruesome, epically sprawling story of Texas.
Download or read book Marriage Is a Beautiful Thing But I Wish I Would ve Known written by Tara Boddie and published by . This book was released on 2019-11-11 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Watching my mother end her second marriage, I thought to myself, "does anything last forever?" Growing up in a family culture full of divorces, extra-marital affairs, and separations, I didn't know what a healthy marriage entailed, but I knew I wanted to be married?Like many of you, I quickly realized that love was not enough to keep my marriage from failing. We were heading down an unexpected and disappointing road to divorce and my fairytale was crumbling. I needed to understand how to use the gifts God had given me as a "Helper" to be the wife I was never taught to be. My book, "Marriage Is A Beautiful Thing, But I Wish I Would've Known" highlights the challenges wives experience juggling purposefulness, marriage, and children, and how to experience a life-changing transformation realizing the power we have as wives and mothers.In order to walk in that power there are four critical areas discussed:?Setting a firm foundation and understanding the value of the "Ministry of Marriage" ?Balancing your time in order to have healthy relationships in all areas of your life?Conquering a self-serving mentality and using the gifts God gave women to have a more fulfilling marriage?Successful Strategies for building a healthy marriage and maintaining love for a lifetimeWomen are initiating divorces at an alarming rate and it is due to impart to an improper understanding of the purposes of marriage and an inability to tap into our gifts in order to bring out the best in our spouse. Women have and ability to create an atmosphere in the home where trust, vulnerability, love, and hope abide. Whether you are single and considering if marriage is for you, or if you are married and wish to unfold the true joy of the marital experience, this book will give you a deeper understanding of who God has called women to be and how you are divinely gifted to love your spouse into purpose.
Download or read book Tiny Beautiful Things written by Cheryl Strayed and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-07-10 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Soon to be a Hulu Original series • The internationally acclaimed author of Wild collects the best of The Rumpus's Dear Sugar advice columns plus never-before-published pieces. Rich with humor and insight—and absolute honesty—this "wise and compassionate" (New York Times Book Review) book is a balm for everything life throws our way. Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild—is the person thousands turn to for advice.
Download or read book The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears written by Dinaw Mengestu and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-03-01 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution for a new start in the United States. Now he finds himself running a failing grocery store in a poor African-American section of Washington, D.C., his only companions two fellow African immigrants who share his bitter nostalgia and longing for his home continent. Years ago and worlds away Sepha could never have imagined a life of such isolation. As his environment begins to change, hope comes in the form of a friendship with new neighbors Judith and Naomi, a white woman and her biracial daughter. But when a series of racial incidents disturbs the community, Sepha may lose everything all over again. Watch a QuickTime interview with Dinaw Mengestu about this book.
Download or read book All the Ugly and Wonderful Things written by Bryn Greenwood and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Struggling to raise her little brother Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star-gazing causes an accident. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold. By the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery"--
Download or read book Our Towns written by James Fallows and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BEST SELLER • The basis for the HBO documentary now streaming on HBO Max For five years, James and Deborah Fallows have travelled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, the America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.
Download or read book This Broken Beautiful Thing written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After tonight I knew things were going to change. For the better that is...I had a secret and I was finally going to tell the boy of my dreams, the love of my life, soul mate and boyfriend of the last four years.I wasn't prepared for what actually happened...I didn't expect to lose my boyfriend and best friend in one night.... Things weren't supposed to end this way.My heart was ripped out, split in two and stomped on for all to see.I was humiliated and betrayed.How deep can the knife of betrayal cut before it's too late to wrench it out and let the forgiveness heal?Is forgiveness even possible when you've been hurt in the worst possible way?Can a soul so broken and ruined ever be restored?How am I supposed to heal from this when I have a reminder of the beautiful man whom broke me looking up to me every day?***Harley is the product of a one night stand. Her mother being an all-out train-wreck and her father the President of a notorious Motorcycle Club. She lives with her mother in a run-down apartment near the strip club she works for, her father lives a few hours away. To say she's had a rough childhood is an understatement. Her life is the complete opposite to the luxury Caleb was brought up with. He is wealthy but never looks down at Harley since he is completely and utterly in love with her.Harley has just graduated from High School, it's their fourth year anniversary and tonight she has a secret to tell him before they head out to college and move into their new apartment together. They've been best friends since they met in Kindergarten and haven't let anyone come between them despite being complete opposites. Caleb is the typical jock and Harley, his dorky sidekick.What happens when Harley is betrayed...by none other than Caleb? What happens when Harley's secret is revealed? She runs to her father, now she has to learn to adapt to the Motorcycle Club life that her father leads. She has a long road ahead of her, surrounded by possessive bikers with dirty mouths and beautiful tattoo clad bodies she's forced to understand the place of a woman in this club, even when she doesn't agree. Will Harley be able to resist Raven, the soon to be Vice President of the Club, when she captures his attention?
