Download or read book The Extraordinary Life of a Mediocre Jock written by Ted Kluck and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join Flex on His Quest to Be Cool Like most middle schoolers, Flex's mind is on a million different things—school, sports, friends, girls (of course), and yeah, he's thinking about God too. More than any of these thoughts, Flex is obsessed with one thing—being cool. But how can Flex attain awesomeness when he's so amazingly average at, well...EVERYTHING?!? Football could be his ticket out of seventh-grade obscurity, but then Coach sticks him with a boring jersey number and reassigns him to the most unglamorous position on the entire team. His parents aren't helping, either. They won't even let him bring his iPod to school like the other kids do. At least, his parents love him and love the Lord. That's HUGE. And just when Flex thinks life couldn't any more complicated, he finds himself suddenly drawn to KK, the mysterious drama girl. She's homeschooled and in ninth grade. KK is totally different...and a little exciting. Will Flex ever be considered cool? In God's eyes, maybe he already is.
Download or read book The Extraordinary Life of a Mediocre Jock written by Ted Kluck and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join Flex on His Quest to Be Cool Like most middle schoolers, Flex's mind is on a million different things—school, sports, friends, girls (of course), and yeah, he's thinking about God too. More than any of these thoughts, Flex is obsessed with one thing—being cool. But how can Flex attain awesomeness when he's so amazingly average at, well...EVERYTHING?!? Football could be his ticket out of seventh-grade obscurity, but then Coach sticks him with a boring jersey number and reassigns him to the most unglamorous position on the entire team. His parents aren't helping, either. They won't even let him bring his iPod to school like the other kids do. At least, his parents love him and love the Lord. That's HUGE. And just when Flex thinks life couldn't any more complicated, he finds himself suddenly drawn to KK, the mysterious drama girl. She's homeschooled and in ninth grade. KK is totally different...and a little exciting. Will Flex ever be considered cool? In God's eyes, maybe he already is.
Download or read book The Outstanding Life of an Awkward Theater Kid written by Ted Kluck and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can Flex Deal with the Drama? Flex is a football player, not an actor. But he can fake it if it means getting to see KK, the girl he’s dating (sort of—it’s complicated), every day after school for about a month. This play isn’t for the weak, though. First, Flex has to deal with his nemesis, Actor Boy, the guy who greets girls with kisses on either cheek. C’mon, dude. Really?!? Then there’s the whole Shakespeare thing. What was “Bill” thinking when he wrote this gobbledygook? Thou dost protest…seriously. Meanwhile KK is hanging out with Watson, the King of the Youth Group, and no amount of video game playing is going to make Flex feel okay about that. He’d better get his jealousy in check before KK checks out on him for good. But with some encouragement from Mimi and Pops (his mom and dad), a little advice from an unlikely ally, and a whole lot of truth from God’s awesome book, Flex might just turn his fear of failure into a performance befitting of the bard himself. Or at the very least, get KK to return his texts.
Download or read book The Dog Lives written by Ted Kluck and published by . This book was released on 2022-09-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flex just has one question: Why do bad things happen to good people pets?If Flex has to read one more book where the dog dies, he's going to lose it. What is it about writers of young adult fiction (and teachers of middle school English classes) that makes them deliver such sadistic emotional whiplash with such glee? And then they have the gall to call it Literature? Enough is enough, and Flex is ready to put his foot down, even if it means looking like a fool in front of KK.When his own beloved pet-a cat named The Dog-goes missing, what seemed like a philosophical problem gets uncomfortably real, real fast. The Dog is an indoor cat who knows nothing about surviving outside and probably won't last the night. Flex is worried, and that worry quickly becomes anger directed at the person who let The Dog out of the house-his mom.It becomes clear that if The Dog is to be found it'll be an all-hands-on-deck situation. But can Flex trust God to bring a lost cat back home? And how can he bring himself to forgive Mimi for leaving the door open in the first place?
Download or read book Wherever I Wind Up written by R.A. Dickey and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The perfect gift for baseball fans, now with a new epilogue by author R.A. Dickey, winner of the 2012 Cy Young award. "An astounding memoir—haunting and touching, courageous and wise."—Jeremy Schaap, bestselling author, Emmy award-winning journalist, ESPN In 1996, R.A. Dickey was the Texas Rangers’ much-heralded No. 1 draft choice. Then, a routine physical revealed that his right elbow was missing its ulnar collateral ligament, and his lifelong dream—along with his $810,000 signing bonus—was ripped away. Yet, despite twice being consigned to baseball’s scrap heap, Dickey battled back. Sustained by his Christian faith, the love of his wife and children, and a relentless quest for self-awareness, Dickey is now the starting pitcher for the Toronoto Blue Jays (he was previously a star pitcher for the New York Mets) and one of the National League’s premier players, as well as the winner of the 2012 Cy Young award. In Wherever I Wind Up, Dickey eloquently shares his quintessentially American tale of overcoming extraordinary odds to achieve a game, a career, and a life unlike any other.
Download or read book The Happy Rant written by Ted Kluck and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2022-08-02 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the hive mind behind the popular Happy Rant podcast (Ted Kluck, Ronnie Martin, and Barnabas Piper) comes this cornucopia of humorous and thought-provoking critiques of Christian culture. Come for the good-natured cynicism. Stay for the enlightenment. Ted Kluck, Ronnie Martin and Barnabas Piper, hosts of the Happy Rant podcast, take their faith-based back-and-forth from the recording booth to the book page with this collection of insightful and often hilarious takedowns of pastor trends, personality tests, political engagement, and more. The Happy Rant crew have a lot of strong opinions, and occasionally they even agree with each other! Always candid and frequently compelling, Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas tackle everything from the divisive, hot-button issues within the church to more lighthearted fare that reminds us never to take ourselves too seriously. As entertaining as it is engaging, The Happy Rant will help you to think more critically about the world around you and enjoy a laugh or two (or maybe three) along the way.
Download or read book The Beginning of Everything written by Robyn Schneider and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robyn Schneider's The Beginning of Everything is a witty and heart-wrenching teen novel that will appeal to fans of books by John Green and Ned Vizzini, novels such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and classics like The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye. Varsity tennis captain Ezra Faulkner was supposed to be homecoming king, but that was before—before his girlfriend cheated on him, before a car accident shattered his leg, and before he fell in love with unpredictable new girl Cassidy Thorpe. As Kirkus said in a starred review, "Schneider takes familiar stereotypes and infuses them with plenty of depth. Here are teens who could easily trade barbs and double entendres with the characters that fill John Green's novels." Funny, smart, and including everything from flash mobs to blanket forts to a poodle who just might be the reincarnation of Jay Gatsby, The Beginning of Everything is a refreshing contemporary twist on the classic coming-of-age novel—a heart-wrenching story about how difficult it is to play the part that people expect, and how new beginnings can stem from abrupt and tragic endings.
Download or read book Shakey Neil Young s Biography written by Jimmy McDonough and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2003-05-13 with total page 995 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neil Young is one of rock and roll’s most important and enigmatic figures, a legend from the sixties who is still hugely influential today. He has never granted a writer access to his inner life – until now. Based on six years of interviews with more than three hundred of Young’s associates, and on more than fifty hours of interviews with Young himself, Shakey is a fascinating, prodigious account of the singer’s life and career. Jimmy McDonough follows Young from his childhood in Canada to his cofounding of Buffalo Springfield to the huge success of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to his comeback in the nineties. Filled with never-before-published words directly from the artist himself, Shakey is an essential addition to the top shelf of rock biographies.
Download or read book A Class Apart written by Alec Klein and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-08-12 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Klein presents a riveting account of the students and teachers at perhaps the best public high school in the country, New York City's Stuyvesant High School, and the enormous academic pressures placed on them.
Download or read book Class written by Paul Fussell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1992 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the living-room artifacts, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from top to bottom.
Download or read book Poison Shy written by Stacey Madden and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2012-10-09 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brandon Galloway, a 29-year-old nobody with a history of dead-end jobs, lands a position with a pest control company. When he meets 21-year-old wild child Melanie Blaxley while fumigating her apartment for bed bugs, her vulgar sensuality and reckless promiscuity both attract and repulse him. Before long her world of crazy sex and petty crime starts to take its toll on Brandon's sanity, and he wonders how much more of her he can stand. Then she disappears, and Brandon must find out if it is all just a prank, or if Melanie's wild ways finally led her into danger. A hair-raising thrill ride through the bars and backstreets of a fictional small town, this fast-paced and darkly funny debut novel explores obsession, fear, and the threat of other people.
Download or read book The Awesome Book of Bible Comics written by Sandy Silverthorne and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Your Favorite Bible Stories—as You've Never Seen Them Before! Bible stories can be seriously awesome! The Awesome Book of Bible Comics illustrates many of the most popular stories from the Bible—and that's a pretty sweet deal, because you do not want to miss out on how Noah escapes becoming fish food David goes head-to-head with a big bully and wins the world's strongest man brings down the house a baby boy becomes the world's biggest superstar overnight Jesus is sentenced to death—but brings the world new life These and several other stories about heroes (and sometimes villains) of the Bible are filled with action and fun to read. Jump in and see how God showed His love and faithfulness through each of these adventures.
Download or read book George Being George written by Nelson W. Aldrich and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributors include Harold Bloom, Jules Feiffer, John Guare, Norman Mailer, Peter Matthiessen, Maggie Paley, Richard Price, James Salter, Robert Silvers, William Styron, Gay Talese, Calvin Trillin, Gore Vidal, and 200 other Plimpton intimates Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. This book is the party that was George’s life–and it’s a big one–attended by scores of famous people, as well as lesser-known intimates and acquaintances. They talk about his life: its privileged beginnings, its wild and triumphant middle, its brave, sad end. They say that George was a man of many parts: the “last gentleman,” founder and first editor of The Paris Review, the graceful writer who brought the New Journalism to sports, and Everyman’s proxy boxer, trapeze artist, stand-up comic, Western movie villain, and Playboy centerfold photographer. George’s last years were awesome, truly so. His greatest gift was to be a blessing to others–not all, truth be told–and that gift ended only with his death. But his parties, if this is one, need never end at all.
Download or read book High Before Homeroom written by Maya Sloan and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-06-22 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Losers, now you can get the bad-boy rep the girls find positively irresistible! Unleash your dark side with the Doug Schaffer plan for drug addiction and rehabilitation! (Kids, don't try this at home.) At sixteen years old, Doug Schaffer knows two things for sure: 1. He is doomed to live in the shadow of his older brother, Trevor, a former high school football star who is stationed in Iraq. 2. Free-spirited Laurilee, the hot ear-piercing girl at the mall, only dates bad boys. Cue Doug's foolproof plan to tarnish his own unremarkable reputation. The first step is to develop a drug addiction. His mom's too preoccupied with organizing care packages for Mothers Support Our Troops Northwest Oklahoma City Chapter to stop him. Besides, he just needs to get hooked on meth long enough to come back from rehab a totally different person. Someone people notice. With the help of Trevor’s strung-out former high-school buddy, drug addict Doug has the confidence that loser Doug never mustered. He stays out all night, scores girls, and stands up for himself. Then Trevor unexpectedly returns home with a dark secret of his own, and everything Doug thought was true is shattered. Soon the brothers find a common ground they never knew they shared as they discover the price of pleasing others is the freedom to be yourself.
Download or read book Jack Kemp written by Morton Kondracke and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "THE PURPOSE OF POLITICS IS NOT TO DEFEAT YOUR OPPONENT AS MUCH AS IT IS TO PROVIDE SUPERIOR LEADERSHIP AND BETTER IDEAS THAN THE OPPOSITION." —JACK KEMP The late 1970s were miserable for America. It was the post–Vietnam, post–Watergate era, a time of high unemployment, ruinous inflation, gasoline lines, Communist advances, and bottomed-out U.S. morale. In the 1980s, it all turned around: "stagflation" ended and nearly two decades of prosperity ensued. The Soviet Union retreated, then collapsed. America again believed in itself. And around the world, democratic capitalism was deemed "the end of history." Ronald Reagan’s policies sparked the American renaissance, but the Gipper’s leadership is only part of the story. The economic theory that underpinned America’s success was pioneered by a star professional quarterback turned self-taught intellectual and "bleeding-heart conservative": Jack Kemp. Kemp’s role in a pivotal period in American history is at last illuminated in this first-ever biography, which also has lessons for the politics of today. Kemp was the congressional champion of supply-side economics—the idea that lowering taxes would foster growth. Even today, almost no one advocates a return to a top income tax rate of 70 percent. Kemp didn’t just challenge the Democratic establishment. He also encouraged his fellow Republicans to be growth (not austerity) minded, open their tent to minorities and blue-collar workers, battle poverty and discrimination, and once again become "the party of Lincoln." Kemp approached politics the same way he played quarterback for the Buffalo Bills: with a refusal to accept defeat. Yet he also was incapable of personal attack, arguing always on the level of ideas. He regarded opponents as adversaries, not enemies, and often cooperated with them to get things done. Despite many ups and downs, including failed presidential and vice-presidential bids, he represented a positive, idealistic, compassionate Republicanism. Drawing on never-published papers and more than one hundred Kemp Oral History Project interviews, noted journalists Morton Kondracke and Fred Barnes trace Kemp’s life, from his childhood through his pro football career to his influential years as a congressman and cabinet secretary. As the American Dream seems to be waning and polarized politics stifles Washington, Kemp is a model for what politics ought to be. The Republican party and the nation are in desperate need of another Kemp.
Download or read book A Hard Thing on a Beautiful Day written by Ted Kluck and published by . This book was released on 2018-08-09 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eighty essays about life, sports, and pop culture, by award-winning author Ted Kluck
Download or read book The Middle School Rules of Thomas Morstead written by Sean Jensen and published by BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Before he earned a Super Bowl ring and started a foundation, he had to survive middle school.” Thomas Morstead entered his 12th NFL season with the New Orleans Saints, distinguishing himself as one of the league’s top punters. In Super Bowl XLIV, he executed an onside kick that the Saints recovered and parlayed into a touchdown to take a 13-10 lead. The Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts to win the Super Bowl. In 2014, Thomas and his wife Lauren started What You Give Will Grow, a foundation committed to improving the lives of those in need, with a strong focus on children and cancer initiatives, in New Orleans and the Gulf South communities. The Middle School Rules of Thomas Morstead shares how Thomas learned about his cultural roots, handled being bullied for his appearance, and dealt with the disappointment of not making the high school varsity soccer team. Inspired by many, including his parents, Thomas pushes himself in every area of his life and boldly chases his dreams.
