Download or read book The Gimmicks written by Chris McCormick and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The Gimmicks is a gorgeous epic that astounds with its scope and beauty. With empathy and humor, McCormick unravels the ties between brotherhood and betrayal, love and abandonment, and the fictions we create to live with the pain of the past. This novel will blow you away.” —Brit Bennett, New York Times bestselling author of The Mothers Set in the waning years of the Cold War, a stunning debut novel about a trio of young Armenians that moves from the Soviet Union, across Europe, to Southern California, and at its center, one of the most tragic cataclysms in twentieth-century history—the Armenian Genocide—whose traumatic reverberations will have unexpected consequences on all three lives. This exuberant, wholly original novel begins in Kirovakan, Armenia, in 1971. Ruben Petrosian is a serious, solitary young man who cares about two things: mastering the game of backgammon to beat his archrival, Mina, and studying the history of his ancestors. Ruben grieves the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, a crime still denied by the descendants of its perpetrators, and dreams of vengeance. When his orphaned cousin, Avo, comes to live with his family, Ruben’s life is transformed. Gregarious and physically enormous, with a distinct unibrow that becomes his signature, Avo is instantly beloved. He is everything Ruben is not, yet the two form a bond they swear never to break. But their paths diverge when Ruben vanishes—drafted into an extremist group that will stop at nothing to make Turkey acknowledge the genocide. Unmoored by Ruben’s disappearance, Avo and Mina grow close in his absence. But fate brings the cousins together once more, when Ruben secretly contacts Avo, convincing him to leave Mina and join the extremists—a choice that will dramatically alter the course of their lives. Left to unravel the threads of this story is Terry “Angel Hair” Krill, a veteran of both the US Navy and the funhouse world of professional wrestling, whose life intersects with Avo, Ruben, and Mina’s in surprising and devastating ways. Told through alternating perspectives, The Gimmicks is a masterpiece of storytelling. Chris McCormick brilliantly illuminates the impact of history and injustice on ordinary lives and challenges us to confront the spectacle of violence and the specter of its aftermath.

Download or read book Living the Gimmick written by Ben Peller and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2000-10-01 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the time he was able to body slam a pillow, Michael dreamed of becoming a professional wrestler, vanquishing imaginary enemies and nagging self-doubt with every drop kick he landed. As his buddies hit the books, Michael got hit. When they left for college, he enrolled in Shane Stratford's Wrestling Academy, where cash -- and a particularly punishing "audition" -- afforded him a first look into a world part circus, part sport, and all spectacle. From penny-ante matches to national notoriety, Michael rises through the ranks of professional wrestling. Hopped up on speed, pumped up on steroids, and fueled by a frustration he can't quite name, he adopts and discards identities in a bid to find the "gimmick" that will make him complete. His search will bring him in contact with people weird and wonderful: athletes and actors, crazy fans and crooked managers, the full rich range of folks who revel in the ring. Combining elements of sports narrative a la "North Dallas 40, " the behind-the-scenes authenticity of "Pumping Iron, " and a flair for the bizarre that recalls John Irving, "Living the Gimmick" is a novel not soon forgotten.

Download or read book Living the Gimmick written by Bobby Mathews and published by . This book was released on 2022-05-27 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When retired pro wrestler Alex Donovan sees his best friend, former world champion 'The Wild Child' Ray Wilder, gunned down in the street, he's drawn back into a world of spandex, spangles, and spotlights in order to find the killer. As Donovan digs deeper into Ray's life, he realizes that the list of people who wanted Ray dead seems endless. Battling his aging, failing body, Donovan feels honor-bound to avenge Ray's death when no one else seems to care. His guilt over escaping the wrestling business to build a new life when Ray couldn't - or wouldn't - drives him to find the killer, no matter if it's friend or foe. Living the Gimmick uses the backdrop of pro wrestling in the 1980s and its current climate to examine the strained bonds of a lifelong friendship and how an all-too-real abuser can exist without scrutiny in a showbiz world full of fake tough guys and choreographed fighting Early Praise for Living the Gimmick "LIVING THE GIMMICK is a bruising romp about pro wrestling, friendship, betrayal, and the lies we let ourselves believe. Bobby Mathews' career as a journalist serves him well in his debut novel; the prose is punchy, the atmosphere pungent. Mathews depicts a world of scripted violence, of showmanship and pain, where the truth is hidden behind the glam and glitter." -Chris Swann, USA Today bestseller, winner of Southern Living's Best Southern Books of 2017 Award "Mathews's impressive debut murder mystery is as much a gritty homage to the excessive, violent, glam rock world of professional wrestling as it is a testimony of how it's evolved from its oftentimes ruthless heyday to the glitzy entertainment machine it is now. LIVING THE GIMMICK is a headlock wrapped in noir sensibilities as it slams down a universal question: how much do we really know the ones we love and trust?" -Heather Levy, author WALKING THROUGH NEEDLES "​​High-class writing about hard-luck people. Timely, bold and brutal. Bobby is a writer to watch." -Libby Cudmore, author of THE BIG REWIND "At times a wild and surreal trip through the subculture of old school pro wrestling and at other times a deft love letter to the passions that drive us all, LIVING THE GIMMICK is a rollicking good time. Bobby Mathews obviously loves three things: The South, pro wrestling, and a good mystery." -S.A. Cosby, NY Times bestselling author of RAZORBLADE TEARS "Mathews writes in smooth, almost transparent strokes that propel the narrative along with such force, you'll read the entire novel in one sitting. The seedy world of wrestling and the badasses who populate it come alive on the page. Kayfabe? Hardly. This is as real and gritty as noir gets." -Hank Early, author of HEAVEN'S CROOKED LITTLE FINGER "Mathews has written a glorious, noir-steeped homage to pro wrestling, all the more remarkable in its ardent fidelity. LIVING THE GIMMICK rocks hard." -Laird Barron, author of Blood Standard

Download or read book Hot Gimmick Vol 10 written by Miki Aihara and published by VIZ Media LLC. This book was released on 2005-12-13 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All-out warfare between their families has Hatsumi and Ryoki wondering about their future, forcing Hatsumi to choose between Ryoki and her brother.

Download or read book Theory of the Gimmick written by Sianne Ngai and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative theory of the gimmick as an aesthetic category steeped in the anxieties of capitalism. Repulsive and yet strangely attractive, the gimmick is a form that can be found virtually everywhere in capitalism. It comes in many guises: a musical hook, a financial strategy, a striptease, a novel of ideas. Above all, acclaimed theorist Sianne Ngai argues, the gimmick strikes us both as working too little (a labor-saving trick) and as working too hard (a strained effort to get our attention). Focusing on this connection to work, Ngai draws a line from gimmicks to political economy. When we call something a gimmick, we are registering uncertainties about value bound to labor and time—misgivings that indicate broader anxieties about the measurement of wealth in capitalism. With wit and critical precision, Ngai explores the extravagantly impoverished gimmick across a range of examples: the fiction of Thomas Mann, Helen DeWitt, and Henry James; photographs by Torbjørn Rødland; the video art of Stan Douglas; the theoretical writings of Stanley Cavell and Theodor Adorno. Despite its status as cheap and compromised, the gimmick emerges as a surprisingly powerful tool in this formidable contribution to aesthetic theory.

Download or read book The Squared Circle written by David Shoemaker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A breakthrough examination of the professional wrestling, its history, its fans, and its wider cultural impact The Squared Circle grows out of David Shoemaker’s writing for Deadspin, where he started the column “Dead Wrestler of the Week” (which boasts more than 1 million page views)—a feature on the many wrestling superstars who died too young because of the abuse they subject their bodies to—and his writing for Grantland, where he covers the pro wrestling world, and its place in the pop culture mainstream. Shoemaker’s sportswriting has since struck a nerve with generations of wrestling fans who—like him—grew up worshipping a sport often derided as “fake” in the wider culture. To them, these professional wrestling superstars are not just heroes but an emotional outlet and the lens through which they learned to see the world. Starting in the early 1900s and exploring the path of pro wrestling in America through the present day, The Squared Circle is the first book to acknowledge both the sport’s broader significance and wrestling fans’ keen intellect and sense of irony. Divided into eras, each section offers a snapshot of the wrestling world, profiles some of the period’s preeminent wrestlers, and the sport’s influence on our broader culture. Through the brawling, bombast, and bloodletting, Shoemaker argues that pro wrestling can teach us about the nature of performance, audience, and, yes, art. Full of unknown history, humor, and self-deprecating reminiscence—but also offering a compelling look at the sport’s rightful place in pop culture—The Squared Circle is the book that legions of wrestling fans have been waiting for. In it, Shoemaker teaches us to look past the spandex and body slams to see an art form that can explain the world.

Download or read book Hitman written by Bret Hart and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2009-02-24 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his own words, Bret Hart’s honest, perceptive, startling account of his life in and out of the pro wrestling ring. The sixth-born son of the pro wrestling dynasty founded by Stu Hart and his elegant wife, Helen, Bret Hart is a Canadian icon. As a teenager, he could have been an amateur wrestling Olympic contender, but instead he turned to the family business, climbing into the ring for his dad’s western circuit, Stampede Wrestling. From his early twenties until he retired at 43, Hart kept an audio diary, recording stories of the wrestling life, the relentless travel, the practical jokes, the sex and drugs, and the real rivalries (as opposed to the staged ones). The result is an intimate, no-holds-barred account that will keep readers, not just wrestling fans, riveted. Hart achieved superstardom in pink tights, and won multiple wrestling belts in multiple territories, for both the WWF (now the WWE) and WCW. But he also paid the price in betrayals (most famously by Vince McMahon, a man he had served loyally); in tragic deaths, including the loss of his brother Owen, who died when a stunt went terribly wrong; and in his own massive stroke, most likely resulting from a concussion he received in the ring, and from which, with the spirit of a true champion, he has battled back. Widely considered by his peers as one of the business’s best technicians and workers, Hart describes pro wrestling as part dancing, part acting, and part dangerous physical pursuit. He is proud that in all his years in the ring he never seriously hurt a single wrestler, yet did his utmost to deliver to his fans an experience as credible as it was exciting. He also records the incredible toll the business takes on its workhorses: he estimates that twenty or more of the wrestlers he was regularly matched with have died young, weakened by their own coping mechanisms, namely drugs, alcohol, and steroids. That toll included his own brother-in-law, Davey Boy Smith. No one has ever written about wrestling like Bret Hart. No one has ever lived a life like Bret Hart’s. For as long as I can remember, my world was filled with liars and bullshitters, losers and pretenders, but I also saw the good side of pro wrestling. To me there is something bordering on beautiful about a brotherhood of big tough men who pretended to hurt one another for a living instead of actually doing it. Any idiot can hurt someone. —from Hitman

Download or read book Under the Thumb written by S. A. Cosby and published by Rock & a Hard Place Press. This book was released on 2021-11-20 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Say their names: Sandra Bland. Philando Castile. Daniel Shaver. George Floyd. And too many others. They died, the victims of a justice system which, for many people in our country and around the world, is seldom just. In this anothology, our authors explore the darker side of the badge, where a traffic stop can go one of two ways--bad or worse. Where evidence can and will be forged. Where the Blue Wall of Silence closes ranks, and accountability becomes a four-letter word. At the end, you'll wonder--is the system broken? Or more chillingly, is it operating just the way it was intended, and are we meant to live our lives Under the Thumb? Guest-edited by New York Times Bestseller S.A. Cosby, with stories by: Travid Wade Beaty, Andrew Case, Hilary Davidson, Hector Duarte Jr., Michael Downing, Jeffrey Eaton, Michael A. Gonzales, James D.F. Hannah, Zakariah Johnson, Preston Lang, Bobby Mathews, Mike McHone, Richie Narvaez, Oluseyi Onabanjo, James Queally, Keith Rosson, Jeff Soloway, Joseph S. Walker, and Tim P. Walker.

Download or read book The Year of Living Biblically written by A. J. Jacobs and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-09-09 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of The Know-It-All takes on history's most influential book.

Download or read book Quit Like a Millionaire written by Kristy Shen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From two leaders of the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement, a bold, contrarian guide to retiring at any age, with a reproducible formula to financial independence A bull***t-free guide to growing your wealth, retiring early, and living life on your own terms Kristy Shen retired with a million dollars at the age of thirty-one, and she did it without hitting a home run on the stock market, starting the next Snapchat in her garage, or investing in hot real estate. Learn how to cut down on spending without decreasing your quality of life, build a million-dollar portfolio, fortify your investments to survive bear markets and black-swan events, and use the 4 percent rule and the Yield Shield--so you can quit the rat race forever. Not everyone can become an entrepreneur or a real estate baron; the rest of us need Shen's mathematically proven approach to retire decades before sixty-five.

Download or read book The Dice Man written by Luke Rhinehart and published by Abrams. This book was released on 1998-05-01 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of the fifty most influential books of the last half of the twentieth century,” a comic novel about a therapist making life choices by rolling dice. (BBC) The cult classic that can still change your life . . . Let the dice decide! This is the philosophy that changes the life of bored psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart―and in some ways changes the world as well. Because once you hand over your life to the dice, anything can happen. Entertaining, humorous, scary, shocking, subversive, The Dice Man is one of the cult bestsellers of our time. “A fine piece of fiction . . . touching, ingenious and beautifully comic.” —Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange “Luke Rhinehart and THE DICE MAN have launched a psychiatric revolution.” —London Sunday Telegraph “A blackly comic amusement park of a book.” —TIME Magazine “Weird, hilarious . . . an outlandishly enjoyable book.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Witty reckless clever . . . . a caper at the edge of nihilism.” —LIFE Magazine “Brilliant . . . much like CATCH-22 . . . the sex extra-juicy.” —The Houston Post “Outrageously funny.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Hilarious and well-written . . . A brilliant summary of modern nihilism. Dice living will be popular, no doubt of that.” —Time Out (London)

Download or read book Ghouls Gimmicks and Gold written by Kevin Heffernan and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2004-03-25 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVThe history of horror films and the horror film industry in the 1950s and 1960s./div

Download or read book Creature ABC written by and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An elegant addition to any library, this deluxe alphabet book features 120 pages of Andrew Zuckerman's breathtaking wildlife photography. From alligator to zebra, each featured animal boasts two striking studio portraits against a clean white background, offering a unique up-close view of the animal kingdom. Readers are treated to a helpful glossary at the end for extra information. From the sleek beauty of a smiling hippo to the powerful majesty of a roaring lion, this gorgeous ebook is both a stunning work of art and a ferociously fun way for young animal-lovers to learn their ABCs.

Download or read book Living with a SEAL written by Jesse Itzler and published by Center Street. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Entrepreneur Jesse Itzler chronicles his month of living and extreme fitness training with a Navy SEAL in the New York Times and #1 LA Times bestseller LIVING WITH A SEAL, now with two bonus chapters. Entrepreneur Jesse Itzler will try almost anything. His life is about being bold and risky. So when Jesse felt himself drifting on autopilot, he hired a rather unconventional trainer to live with him for a month-an accomplished Navy SEAL widely considered to be "the toughest man on the planet"! LIVING WITH A SEAL is like a buddy movie if it starred the Fresh Prince of Bel- Air...and Rambo. Jesse is about as easy-going as you can get. SEAL is...not. Jesse and SEAL's escapades soon produce a great friendship, and Jesse gains much more than muscle. At turns hilarious and inspiring, LIVING WITH A SEAL ultimately shows you the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone.

Download or read book The Name of this Book is Secret written by Pseudonymous Bosch and published by Usborne Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I don't know how you got here but this page isn't for you. This is an extremely dangerous book with a very deadly secret. It is an alarming account of two extraordinary adventurers, a missing magician's diary, a symphony of smells and a deadly secret... If you're both curious and brave, visit www.thenameofthisbookissecret.co.uk - but remember - I warned you. "Many different types of readers will thoroughly enjoy this tale including fans of Anthony Horowitz and Lemony Snicket. The book is an interesting read where many types of emotions overwhelm you such as horror, grief, mystery, anxiety the lot. Mixed with a hint of sweet satisfaction that you have finally read the story. I honestly do not know how I lived without reading the book - it baffles me." - Guardian Children's Books Shortlisted Bedforshire Children's Book of the Year Award 2009, selected for the Premier League Reading Stars programme

Download or read book To Live and Drink in L A written by Ben Peller and published by . This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If David Sedaris, Chelsea Handler, and Charles Bukowski had ever consummated a threesome, the result would most likely be Shawn Michals, the protagonist of TO LIVE AND DRINK IN L.A. This series of semi-autobiographical stories follows Shawn as he moves from the Midwest to Los Angeles, and deals with topics such as his stubborn refusal to own either a car or a cellphone, his use of pro wrestling to deal with his manic-depressive mother's suicide, finding meaning in menial jobs, and many other adventures. Like Shawn often does, readers of this work may find themselves in uncharted territory, while at the same time discovering how one can learn lessons and experience growth in the most unlikely of places, even in a city many people believe to be shallower than a puddle. If a phone call from a telemarketer can lead to spearheading a march on the Pentagon, as it does for Shawn, anything is possible in the City of Angels. Cheers. "Ben Peller has a fine eye and a wonderful ear, but most of all and best of all, he writes with his heart." - Bob Greene, best-selling author of BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL

Download or read book A Void written by Georges Perec and published by David R. Godine Publisher. This book was released on 2005 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "...a daunting triumph of will pushing its way through imposing roadblocks to a magical country, an absurdist nirvana of humor, pathos, and loss."--Time magazine A Void is a metaphysical whodunit, a story chock-full of plots and subplots, of trails in pursuit of trails, all of which afford Perec occasion to display his virtuosity as a verbal magician. It is also an outrageous verbal stunt: a 300-page novel that never once employs the letter E. The year is 1968, and as France is torn apart by social and political anarchy, the noted eccentric and insomniac Anton Vowl goes missing. Ransacking his Paris flat, his best friends scour his diary for clues to his whereabouts. At first glance these pages reveal nothing but Vowl's penchant for word games, especially for "lipograms," compositions in which the use of a particular letter is suppressed. But as the friends work out Vowl's verbal puzzles, and as they investigate various leads discovered among the entries, they too disappear, one by one by one, and under the most mysterious circumstances . . .