Download or read book Luck Was a Stranger written by William R. Cooney and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2003-04-14 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who is Bill Cooney? Is he a poet, a madman, a former candidate for the priesthood, a son of one of the most prosperous and well-liked men in the tiny town of Kilbeggan, Ireland, an apple thief, a man spared three times from certain death, a gadfly, a fearless Saxon warrior, a student of medicine at Trinity College, a truck driver, a store clerk, an insurance inspector, a night watchman, a businessman, a writer of hundreds of unpublished puns, a husband, a father, a grandfather, an animal lover? Yes, and he's also the author of this memoir. Born into a prosperous Irish family, Bill Cooney had his life planned out for him before it even began. His mother told him he was destined for the priesthood. His father wanted him to be a doctor. But what he wanted most was to be free. He got out from under the controlling forces of his parents and the Church, to make his own way, leaving for the frontier land of Canada, a journey that took him from prosperity to poverty, and finally, to America, the promised land, where he found that dreams do come true, and nightmares as well.
Download or read book Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers written by John Gierach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Witty, shrewd, and always a joy to read, John Gierach, “America’s best fishing writer” (Houston Chronicle) and favorite streamside philosopher, has earned the following of “legions of readers who may not even fish but are drawn to his musings on community, culture, the natural world, and the seasons of life” (Kirkus Reviews). “After five decades, twenty books, and countless columns, [John Gierach] is still a master” (Forbes). Now, in his latest original collection, Gierach shows us why fly-fishing is the perfect antidote to everything that is wrong with the world. “Gierach’s deceptively laconic prose masks an accomplished storyteller…His alert and slightly off-kilter observations place him in the general neighborhood of Mark Twain and James Thurber” (Publishers Weekly). In Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers, Gierach looks back to the long-ago day when he bought his first resident fishing license in Colorado, where the fishing season never ends, and just knew he was in the right place. And he succinctly sums up part of the appeal of his sport when he writes that it is “an acquired taste that reintroduces the chaos of uncertainty back into our well-regulated lives.” Lifelong fisherman though he is, Gierach can write with self-deprecating humor about his own fishing misadventures, confessing that despite all his experience, he is still capable of blowing a strike by a fish “in the usual amateur way.” “Arguably the best fishing writer working” (The Wall Street Journal), Gierach offers witty, trenchant observations not just about fly-fishing itself but also about how one’s love of fly-fishing shapes the world that we choose to make for ourselves.
Download or read book The Stranger written by Max Frei and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Russian author’s international-bestselling series begins with this “well-written, well-paced grown-up fantasy with a strong dose of reality” (Kirkus Reviews). Fandomania.com’s #1 Book of 2009 To put it bluntly, Max Frei is a loser. He spends his day sleeping and at night he smokes, eats, and loafs around because he can’t catch a wink. But then he gets lucky. Through his dreams, he begins to contact a parallel world where magic is a daily practice—and, strangely, Max seems to fit right in. Once a social outcast, he’s now known in this new world of Echo as the “unequalled Sir Max.” He’s a member of the Department of Absolute Order, formed by a species of enchanted secret agents; his job is to solve cases involving illegal magic. And he’s about to embark on a journey down the winding paths of this strange and unhinged universe. “Fans of Jasper Fforde and Susanna Clark will happily jump into Frei’s world.” —USA Today “If Harry Potter smoked cigarettes and took a certain matter-of-fact pleasure in administering tough justice, he might like Max Frei, the protagonist of this fantasy novel.” —Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Stories written by Bret Harte and published by Boston : Houghton, Mifflin. This book was released on 1882 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Stalking the Red Headed Stranger written by Randy Poe and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Book). Stalking the Red Headed Stranger is a guide to the art and history of professional song plugging. But this isn't your run-of-the-mill history book/instruction manual. It is an in-depth, up-close look into the real music business by industry insider and Grammy Award nominee Randy Poe, who has represented literally hundreds of the greatest songs in the history of popular music, including "Stand By Me," "Happy Together," "Jailhouse Rock," "Under the Boardwalk," "Hound Dog," "What a Wonderful World," "Spanish Harlem," "Chapel of Love," "Summer in the City," "Love Potion No. 9," and "Kansas City." But wait! There's so much more! Interwoven throughout this entertaining and enlightening book is the hysterical saga of the author as he chases American icon Willie Nelson across Canada via plane, taxi, rental car, and even ferryboat in an attempt to pitch a single song to the Red Headed Stranger. And what happens on Willie's bus doesn't stay on Willie's bus. Stalking the Red Headed Stranger , or How to Get Your Songs into the Hands of the Artists Who Really Matter Through Show Business Trickery, Underhanded Skullduggery, Shrewdness, and Chicanery, as Well as Various Less Nefarious Methods of Song Plugging: A Practical Handbook and Historical Portrait is the funniest, hippest, longest-titled how-to book you'll read this year.
Download or read book The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales written by Bret Harte and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Writings of Bret Harte The luck of Roaring Camp and other tales written by Bret Harte and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Luck is Everything Or the Adventures of Brian O Linn written by William H. Maxwell and published by . This book was released on 1870 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Stranger in the Village of the Sick written by Paul Stoller and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2005-04-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After more than fifty years of good health, anthropologist Paul Stoller suddenly found himself diagnosed with lymphoma. The only thing more transformative than his fear and dread of cancer was the place it ultimately took him: twenty-five years back in time to his days as an apprentice to a West African sorcerer, Adamu Jenitongo. Stranger in the Village of the Sick follows Stoller down this unexpected path toward personal discovery, growth, and healing. The stories here are about life in the village of the healthy and the village of the sick, and they highlight differences in how illness is culturally perceived. In America and the West, illness is war; we strive to eradicate it from our bodies and lives. In West Africa, however, illness is an ever-present companion, and sorcerers learn to master illnesses like cancer through a combination of acceptance, pragmatism, and patience. Stoller provides a view into the ancient practices of sorcery, revealing that as an apprentice he learned to read divining shells, mix potions, and recite incantations. But it wasn't until he got cancer that he realized that sorcery embodied a more profound meaning, one that every person could use: "Sorcery is a body of knowledge and practice that enables one to see things clearly and to walk with confidence on the path of fear."
Download or read book If a Stranger Approaches You written by Laura Kasischke and published by Sarabande Books. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifteen “alarming and gorgeous” stories from the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author about the quiet terrors of American life (The Boston Globe). Laura Kasischke, national bestselling author of The Life Before Her Eyes and White Bird in a Blizzard, both adapted for film, looks behind the quietude of domesticity to find the “strange and unexpected and sometimes extraordinary” in this collection of stories that “defies simple definition” (Booklist). In “Mona,” a mother violates her daughter’s privacy certain she’s hiding a dreadful secret. In “You’re Going to Die,” a girl delights in the cruel power she has over her ailing father. In “Search Continues for Elderly Man,” a little boy’s invitation for a lonely old neighbor to come out and play takes a shocking turn. In “Our Father,” children camouflage their sleeping dad in dirty rags to protect him. But from what?; and in the title story, a woman agrees to carry a package aboard a plane for a stranger despite—or perhaps, because of—her fantasizes about potential disaster. Populated by people coming to terms with a life that is just a little bit off—after there is a tiny mummified heart in a dresser drawer of a suburban home, If a Stranger Approaches You is “an important addition to [Kasischeke’s] own body of work and to the contemporary literature of end times” —NPR Books
Download or read book Putnam s Magazine Original Papers on Literature Science Art and National Interests written by and published by . This book was released on 1869 with total page 792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Putnam s magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1869 with total page 912 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Putnam s Magazine of Literature Science Art and National Interests written by and published by . This book was released on 1869 with total page 778 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Just a Stranger written by Scott Lance and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2001-07-26 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just A Stranger Small town atmosphere where the weather is continually changing, giving the locals a popular, non-thinking topic to discuss. And how is your day? Just A Stranger depicts life in a slow, comforting village where your neighbor is family, the store clerk is a by-product of immigration, the school system is consolidated, and each day follows the same-old, same-old. Until… Two young ladies coming home for a visit. A small reunion filled with life’s ultimate questions and dying answers. Drawing them to the edge of their own existence, is it Mayville with it’s quaint taste of settling or is it the players this small village has created. Kim and Becky knew this would be no vacation, but once their feet touched the ground of Mayville…I’ll let you explain.
Download or read book The Stranger the Voice and Norman written by Logan Jones and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2019-08-14 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Norman Cowell is very different compared to everyone else. He was born with Down syndrome, has a history of anxiety attacks, and his only friend in the world is a voice inside his head who mainly berates him for not believing in himself. He may be different, but he has also discovered something about himself that a lot of people struggle with in their lives: Norman knows his place in the world. He wants to join the police so he can make the world a better place for everyone—if only his obstacles weren’t so impossible to overcome. The police won’t accept him because of his Down syndrome. Norman’s uncle and guardian, Larry Cowell, is the superintendent at Sunbury Police Station, and even he doubts Norman’s capability of reaching this goal. When Larry ends up getting an invitation to stay at an old friend’s house for his wedding anniversary, he decides to bring Norman with him. On the first evening, Norman gets a break when he is confronted by the head servant of the mansion, Duncan Noble. Duncan’s son, Dennis, hasn’t been seen or heard from in a week, and Duncan thinks the family he works for, the Hendersons, has something to do with his disappearance. He wants Norman to investigate and find out the truth. Norman finally has a chance to prove he is capable of being a detective. However, with so many obstacles in his way—his insecurities getting the best of him, his lack of knowledge on how to actually work through an investigation, and his fear of bumping into Richard Henderson, his school bully—Norman may be in over his head, but he will try his best to find out the truth. He doesn’t know that a stranger isn’t too far behind, watching his every move.
Download or read book The Hands of Strangers written by Michael Farris Smith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of The Stranger and The Old Man and the Sea, this taut novella by critically acclaimed novelist Michael Farris Smith (Rivers, 2013) explores the human spirit and its capacity for faith and forgiveness in an imperfect world. What happens to a marriage when a child vanishes? Jon and Estelle walk the picturesque Paris streets, but are living through the cruelest of realties—the disappearance of their nine-year-old daughter Jennifer, abducted from the Musée D’Orsay during a class field trip. Jon spends his day slugging through bus terminals and metro halls, posting flyers of his daughter, while Estelle has become a recluse, unwilling to leave the apartment in case the telephone rings. Their relationship suffers as the passing time chips away at the hope of Jennifer’s return. Then, a free-spirited artist enters their life as unexpectedly as Jennifer has left it, luring Jon down a reckless path as he searches desperately for courage in the smallest signs. If their daughter is ever returned to them, will Jon and Estelle both be there to welcome her home?
Download or read book The Myth of Luck written by Steven D. Hales and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-07-23 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humanity has thrown everything we have at implacable luck-novel theologies, entire philosophical movements, fresh branches of mathematics-and yet we seem to have gained only the smallest edge on the power of fortune. The Myth of Luck tells us why we have been fighting an unconquerable foe. Taking us on a guided tour of one of our oldest concepts, we begin in ancient Greece and Rome, considering how Plato, Plutarch, and the Stoics understood luck, before entering the theoretical world of probability and exploring how luck relates to theology, sports, ethics, gambling, knowledge, and present-day psychology. As we travel across traditions, times and cultures, we come to realize that it's not that as soon as we solve one philosophical problem with luck that two more appear, like heads on a hydra, but rather that the monster is altogether mythological. We cannot master luck because there is nothing to defeat: luck is no more than a persistent and troubling illusion. By introducing us to compelling arguments and convincing reasons that explain why there is no such thing as luck, we finally see why in a very real sense we make our own luck, that luck is our own doing. The Myth of Luck helps us to regain our own agency in the world - telling the entertaining story of the philosophy and history of luck along the way.
