Download or read book I Know This Much Is True written by Wally Lamb and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-03 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

Download or read book The Birth of Cool written by Carol Tulloch and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is broadly recognized that black style had a clear and profound influence on the history of dress in the twentieth century, with black culture and fashion having long been defined as 'cool'. Yet despite this high profile, in-depth explorations of the culture and history of style and dress in the African diaspora are a relatively recent area of enquiry. The Birth of Cool asserts that 'cool' is seen as an arbiter of presence, and relates how both iconic and 'ordinary' black individuals and groups have marked out their lives through the styling of their bodies. Focusing on counter- and sub-cultural contexts, this book investigates the role of dress in the creation and assertion of black identity. From the gardenia corsage worn by Billie Holiday to the work-wear of female African-Jamaican market traders, through to the home-dressmaking of black Britons in the 1960s, and the meaning of a polo-neck jumper as depicted in a 1934 self-portrait by African-American artist Malvin Gray Johnson, this study looks at the ways in which the diaspora experience is expressed through self-image. Spanning the late nineteenth century to the modern day, the book draws on ready-made and homemade fashion, photographs, paintings and films, published and unpublished biographies and letters from Britain, Jamaica, South Africa, and the United States to consider how personal style statements reflect issues of racial and cultural difference. The Birth of Cool is a powerful exploration of how style and dress both initiate and confirm change, and the ways in which they expresses identity and resistance in black culture.

Download or read book Big Fish written by Daniel Wallace and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When his attempts to get to know his dying father fail, William Bloom makes up stories that recreate his father's life in heroic proportions.

Download or read book Born to Be Good The Science of a Meaningful Life written by Dacher Keltner and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2009-09-22 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Family & health.

Download or read book Thing of Beauty written by Stephen Fried and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-12-06 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiration behind the Emmy Award–winning HBO film Gia with Angelina Jolie, this “vivid…exhaustive” (The New York Times Book Review) account of the iconic and tragic life, career, and legacy of supermodel Gia Carangi features a new afterword by the author. At seventeen, Gia Carangi was working the counter at her father’s Philadelphia luncheonette. Within a year, she was one of the world’s top models, gracing the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vogue, partying at Studio 54, and redefining the fashion industry’s standard of beauty. But behind the glitz and fame, Gia was a young woman in pain, desperate for her mother’s approval and facing a drug addiction that quickly spun out of control. With dizzying speed, she went from $10,000-a-day fashion shoots to using drugs on the streets of New York and Atlantic City before finally being blackballed from modeling. At twenty-six, Gia once again made history as one of the first famous women to die of AIDS. This “chilling tale” (The Boston Globe), based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family, lovers, and fashionistas (the term author Stephen Fried coined for her industry colleagues), is comprehensively explored in this unputdownable biography that will introduce Gia to a new generation. It is also a powerful exploration of our society’s views of beauty and sexuality, fame and objectification, mothers and daughters, love and death.

Download or read book Among the Hidden written by Margaret Peterson Haddix and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-06-12 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke, an illegal third child, has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family's farm in this start to the Shadow Children series from Margaret Peterson Haddix. Luke has never been to school. He's never had a birthday party, or gone to a friend's house for an overnight. In fact, Luke has never had a friend. Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He's lived his entire life in hiding, and now, with a new housing development replacing the woods next to his family's farm, he is no longer even allowed to go outside. Then, one day Luke sees a girl's face in the window of a house where he knows two other children already live. Finally, he's met a shadow child like himself. Jen is willing to risk everything to come out of the shadows—does Luke dare to become involved in her dangerous plan? Can he afford not to?

Download or read book How I Survived to Live the Good LIfe written by Raynell Finn and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is no sugarcoating the truth and neither does she sugarcoat the love. Raynell delivers both love and truth as she shares her story of survival. From life on 'The Hill' and finding what she believed to be TRUE love, to running for her life to the city of Minneapolis where she eventually encountered PURE love! She reminds us every step of the way to always put our trust in the word of God. Her vulnerability in her truth allows us to see that we are not alone out here. We don't have to condemn ourselves for following our hearts. But we must trust God through the choices we make. If we keep Him at the forefront, He will will always bless us and always be there. Raynell desires all women to walk in their truth and understand their value. This peek into her life shows us all that just because things happen to you, they don't define who God has created you to be. And she has shown us in this story over and over, we are all more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

Download or read book Before You Were Born written by Joan Lowery Nixon and published by Our Sunday Visitor. This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Briefly describes the nine months of growth before birth.

Download or read book The Experience Economy written by B. Joseph Pine and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text seeks to raise the curtain on competitive pricing strategies and asserts that businesses often miss their best opportunity for providing consumers with what they want - an experience. It presents a strategy for companies to script and stage the experiences provided by their products.

Download or read book Before You Were Born written by Jennifer Rauch and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 1998-05-01 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lift-the-flap book showing milestones in a baby's development during pregnancy and the mother's experiences as it grows.

Download or read book iGen written by Jean M. Twenge and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As seen in Time, USA TODAY, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and on CBS This Morning, BBC, PBS, CNN, and NPR, iGen is crucial reading to understand how the children, teens, and young adults born in the mid-1990s and later are vastly different from their Millennial predecessors, and from any other generation. With generational divides wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today’s rising generation of teens and young adults. Born in the mid-1990s up to the mid-2000s, iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person—perhaps contributing to their unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred social taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. With the first members of iGen just graduating from college, we all need to understand them: friends and family need to look out for them; businesses must figure out how to recruit them and sell to them; colleges and universities must know how to educate and guide them. And members of iGen also need to understand themselves as they communicate with their elders and explain their views to their older peers. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation—and the world.

Download or read book This Book Made Me Do It written by DK and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-09-20 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knowledge comes in all shapes and sizes, and This Book Made Me Do It celebrates it in all its vastness and variety. This Book Made Me Do It gives step-by-step instructions on everything from hacking their gadgets and toys to making clouds in bottles and creating music from the most surprising of everyday objects. There is something here for the hobbyist, the amateur, or just the fantastically curious. The reader will learn not only how to make a barometer, but why barometers matter, and how to use them to forecast weather. This lively and engaging book--through its clarity, levity, and well-researched information--will keep readers of all ages busy learning, making, creating, hacking, thinking, and doing for a very long time.

Download or read book Screen World 1999 written by John Willis and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2000-04-01 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Screen World). John Willis' Screen World has become the definitive reference for any film library. Each volume includes every significant U.S. and international film released during that year as well as complete filmographies, capsule plot summaries, cast and characters, credits, production company, month released, rating, and running time. You'll also find biographical entries a prices reference for over 2,000 living stars, including real name, school, place and date of birth. A comprehensive index makes this the finest film publication that any film lover could own.

Download or read book Draft Dreams In The Making written by David Hein and published by Meinbestseller.de. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions of basketball players outside the United States dream of one day playing in the NBA. Thousands of those youngsters make their way onto the radars of NBA scouts patrolling the globe on the lookout for the next Drazen Petrovic, Arvydas Sabonis, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, Dirk Nowitzki or Giannis Antetokounmpo. Those talent observers criss-cross Europe and the rest of the world and watch prospects playing at both club and national team competitions - and that both at the youth and senior levels. "Draft Dreams In The Making" is a compilation of articles written by David Hein about many of the international players who have shined at one or more of those competitions and have either declared themselves for the 2020 NBA Draft or are automatically eligible - those 1998-born players. The articles in this book were published on the websites for the events where the players were competing - be it FIBA, Euroleague Basketball and Basketball Champions League events. Not all international players who are in the 2020 draft pool are included in this book - solely those about whom an article was written. Hopefuly you enjoy this book as much as the author did writing the articles in it.

Download or read book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat And Other Clinical Tales written by Oliver Sacks and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1998 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores neurological disorders and their effects upon the minds and lives of those affected with an entertaining voice.

Download or read book Assembly written by West Point Association of Graduates (Organization). and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book We ll Paint the Octopus Red written by Stephanie A. Bodeen and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Story about Emma whose baby brother has Down Syndrome. Suitable for ages 3-6.