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Book Amateur

    Book Details:
  • Author : Thomas Page McBee
  • Publisher : Scribner
  • Release : 2019-05-14
  • ISBN : 1501168754
  • Pages : 224 pages

Download or read book Amateur written by Thomas Page McBee and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction *Shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Memoir/Biography *Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize One of The Times UK’s Best Memoirs of 2018, BuzzFeed’s Best Nonfiction of 2018, Autostraddle’s Best LGBT Books of 2018, Book Riot’s Best Queer Books of 2018, and 52 Insight’s Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2018 A “no-holds-barred examination of masculinity” (BuzzFeed) and violence from award-winning author Thomas Page McBee. In this “refreshing and radical” (The Guardian) narrative, Thomas McBee, a trans man, sets out to uncover what makes a man—and what being a “good” man even means—through his experience training for and fighting in a charity boxing match at Madison Square Garden. A self-described “amateur” at masculinity, McBee embarks on a wide-ranging exploration of gender in society, examining sexism, toxic masculinity, and privilege. As he questions the limitations of gender roles and the roots of masculine aggression, he finds intimacy, hope, and even love in the experience of boxing and in his role as a man in the world. Despite personal history and cultural expectations, “Amateur is a reminder that the individual can still come forward and fight” (The A.V. Club). “Sharp and precise, open and honest,” (Women’s Review of Books), McBee’s writing asks questions “relevant to all people, trans or not” (New York Newsday). Through interviews with experts in neuroscience, sociology, and critical race theory, he constructs a deft and thoughtful examination of the role of men in contemporary society. Amateur is a graceful and uncompromising look at gender by a fearless, fiercely honest writer.

Book The Amateur Man

    Book Details:
  • Author : W. R. Gaut
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 1918
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 496 pages

Download or read book The Amateur Man written by W. R. Gaut and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Amateur Cracksman

    Book Details:
  • Author : Ernest William Hornung
  • Publisher : Lulu.com
  • Release : 2017-08-06
  • ISBN : 1387148559
  • Pages : 136 pages

Download or read book The Amateur Cracksman written by Ernest William Hornung and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-08-06 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arthur J. Raffles is a character created in the 1890s by E. W. Hornung, brother-in-law to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Holmes - he is a ""gentleman thief,"" living at the Albany, a prestigious address in London, playing cricket for the Gentlemen of England and supporting himself by carrying out ingenious burglaries. He is called the ""Amateur Cracksman,"" and often, at first, differentiates between himself and the ""professors"" - professional criminals from the lower classes. As Holmes has Dr. Watson to chronicle his adventures, Raffles has Harry ""Bunny"" Manders - a former schoolmate saved from disgrace and suicide by Raffles, whom Raffles persuaded to accompany him on a burglary. While Raffles often takes advantage of Manders' relative innocence, and sometimes treats him with a certain amount of contempt, he knows that Manders' bravery and loyalty are to be relied on utterly.

Book The Amateur

    Book Details:
  • Author : Edward Klein
  • Publisher : Simon and Schuster
  • Release : 2013-06-03
  • ISBN : 1621571653
  • Pages : 276 pages

Download or read book The Amateur written by Edward Klein and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-06-03 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s amateur hour at the White House. So says New York Times bestselling author Edward Klein in his new political exposé The Amateur. Tapping into the public’s growing sentiment that President Obama is in over his head, The Amateur argues that Obama’s toxic combination of incompetence and arrogance have run our nation and his presidency off the rails. “Obama was both completely inexperienced and ideologically far to the left of Americans when he entered the White House,” says Klein. “And he was so arrogant that he didn’t even know what he didn’t know.” Klein, who is known for getting the inside scoop on everyone from the Kennedys to the Clintons, reveals never-before-published details about the Obama administration’s political inner workings and about Barack and Michelle’s personal lives, including: The inordinate influence Michelle wields over Barack and her feud with a high-profile celebrity The real reason Rahm Emmanuel left the White House (it wasn’t for family reasons) Why Valerie Jarrett’s role is closer to that of Rasputin than impartial senior advisor Obama’s problems with American Jews How Obama has purposefully forgotten and ignored those that put him in power, including the Kennedys, and the Jewish and African American communities in Chicago From Obama’s conceited and detached demeanor, to his detrimental reliance on Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett’s advice, to the Obamas' extravagant and out-of-touch lifestyle, The Amateur reveals a president whose blatant ignorance and incompetence is sabotaging himself, his presidency, and America.

Book The Amateur

    Book Details:
  • Author : Andy Merrifield
  • Publisher : Verso Books
  • Release : 2018-05-29
  • ISBN : 1786631075
  • Pages : 241 pages

Download or read book The Amateur written by Andy Merrifield and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A radical manifesto about doing what you love Andy Merrifield offers a passionate tribute to the revolutionary spirit of the amateur—a figure who thinks outside the box, takes risks, dreams the impossible dream, seeks independence, and carves out a new world. Merrifield celebrates such square pegs as Charles Baudelaire, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Edward Said, Guy Debord, Hannah Arendt, and Jane Jacobs, each of whom shows us a path of unconventional wisdom and freedom. The Amateur advocates urgently for the liberated life, one that creates the space to question authority.

Book Man Alive

Download or read book Man Alive written by Thomas Page McBee and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2017-05-25 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If he is to become a man, what sort of man should Thomas Page McBee be? To find out, McBee must confront the suffering he has endured at the hands of men: the abuse he endured as a child from his father, and the violent mugging which almost killed him as an adult. Standing at the brink of the life-changing decision to transition from female to male, McBee seeks to understand these examples of flawed manhood, and reclaim his body on his own terms. Powerful, uplifting and profound, Man Alive is a story about transformation; about freedom, and love, and finding the strength to rebuild ourselves as the people we are meant to be.

Book The Amateur Marriage

    Book Details:
  • Author : Anne Tyler
  • Publisher : Vintage
  • Release : 2004-01-06
  • ISBN : 1400042984
  • Pages : 326 pages

Download or read book The Amateur Marriage written by Anne Tyler and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2004-01-06 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning author—a rich and compelling novel about a mismatched marriage and its consequences, spanning three generations They seemed like the perfect couple—young, good-looking, made for each other. The moment Pauline, a stranger to the Polish Eastern Avenue neighborhood of Baltimore (though she lived only twenty minutes away), walked into his mother’s grocery store, Michael was smitten. And in the heat of World War II fervor, they are propelled into a hasty wedding. But they never should have married. Pauline, impulsive, impractical, tumbles hit-or-miss through life; Michael, plodding, cautious, judgmental, proceeds deliberately. While other young marrieds, equally ignorant at the start, seemed to grow more seasoned, Pauline and Michael remain amateurs. In time their foolish quarrels take their toll. Even when they find themselves, almost thirty years later, loving, instant parents to a little grandson named Pagan, whom they rescue from Haight-Ashbury, they still cannot bridge their deep-rooted differences. Flighty Pauline clings to the notion that the rifts can always be patched. To the unyielding Michael, they become unbearable. From the sound of the cash register in the old grocery to the counterculture jargon of the sixties, from the miniskirts to the multilayered apparel of later years, Anne Tyler captures the evocative nuances of everyday life during these decades with such telling precision that every page brings smiles of recognition. Throughout, as each of the competing voices bears witness, we are drawn ever more fully into the complex entanglements of family life in this wise, embracing, and deeply perceptive novel.

Book The Cult of the Amateur

Download or read book The Cult of the Amateur written by Andrew Keen and published by Currency. This book was released on 2008-08-12 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amateur hour has arrived, and the audience is running the show In a hard-hitting and provocative polemic, Silicon Valley insider and pundit Andrew Keen exposes the grave consequences of today’s new participatory Web 2.0 and reveals how it threatens our values, economy, and ultimately the very innovation and creativity that forms the fabric of American achievement. Our most valued cultural institutions, Keen warns—our professional newspapers, magazines, music, and movies—are being overtaken by an avalanche of amateur, user-generated free content. Advertising revenue is being siphoned off by free classified ads on sites like Craigslist; television networks are under attack from free user-generated programming on YouTube and the like; file-sharing and digital piracy have devastated the multibillion-dollar music business and threaten to undermine our movie industry. Worse, Keen claims, our “cut-and-paste” online culture—in which intellectual property is freely swapped, downloaded, remashed, and aggregated—threatens over 200 years of copyright protection and intellectual property rights, robbing artists, authors, journalists, musicians, editors, and producers of the fruits of their creative labors. In today’s self-broadcasting culture, where amateurism is celebrated and anyone with an opinion, however ill-informed, can publish a blog, post a video on YouTube, or change an entry on Wikipedia, the distinction between trained expert and uninformed amateur becomes dangerously blurred. When anonymous bloggers and videographers, unconstrained by professional standards or editorial filters, can alter the public debate and manipulate public opinion, truth becomes a commodity to be bought, sold, packaged, and reinvented. The very anonymity that the Web 2.0 offers calls into question the reliability of the information we receive and creates an environment in which sexual predators and identity thieves can roam free. While no Luddite—Keen pioneered several Internet startups himself—he urges us to consider the consequences of blindly supporting a culture that endorses plagiarism and piracy and that fundamentally weakens traditional media and creative institutions. Offering concrete solutions on how we can reign in the free-wheeling, narcissistic atmosphere that pervades the Web, THE CULT OF THE AMATEUR is a wake-up call to each and every one of us.

Book Ip Man Wing Chun

    Book Details:
  • Author : Alessandro Sivo
  • Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
  • Release : 2016-01-21
  • ISBN : 9781523636815
  • Pages : 242 pages

Download or read book Ip Man Wing Chun written by Alessandro Sivo and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-01-21 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ALESSANDRO SIVO PRACTICE WING CHUN FOR OVER 10 YEARS . And ' AUTHOR OF PREVIOUS THREE BOOKS ON THE THEME AND YEARS OF DEDICATION TO THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF THIS DISCIPLINE WITH HUMILITY ' . HIS RESEARCH HAS LED TO ATTEND COURSES AND SEVERAL DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF WING CHUN AND THEN TO KNOW EVEN IN THE CORPORATE WORLD CLASS OF WING CHUN KUNG FU . TALK ABOUT THIS WORK SAYING THIS :TALKING ABOUT THIS BOOK, HE SAYS: ALTHOUGH TODAY STILL JUST A O YOUNG TEACHER STUDENT BUT ALSO THE INTENT OF THIS WORK, NOT 'PRETENTIOUS BUT IT' IS TO GIVE AID TO PRACTICE IP MAN WING CHUN AND NOT LIMITED TO, THE PROVIDING THAT IMPORTANT TECHNICAL DETAILS SOMETIMES UNFORTUNATELY IN SCHOOLS OF WING CHUN ARE NOT TRANSMITTED OR OTHERWISE IN BOOKS IS HARD TO FIND. THIS WORK AND 'FIRST BORN AND' STILL FOR ME STILL, ALSO A WAY OF ALL STAFF, FOR EVEN BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT 'MY STYLE AND EVERYTHING' WHEEL BACK TO IT, BUT ESPECIALLY FOR NON FORGET ANY KEY STEPS THAT ARE AT THE BASE OF THE SYSTEM AND THAT WITH THE PASSAGE OF TIME WE HAVE LOOSE IT. SO COULD NOT TALK IN THE BOOK 'AND TECHNICAL POSITIONS ONLY BUT ALSO THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE SAME BODY OF WHICH THE SYSTEM WING CHUN CORRECTLY THE SAME CAN NOT 'WORK. THIS BOOK IS ALSO A WAY THEN TO HAVE A CODING OF A CERTAIN STYLE THAT FOR YEARS FOR A SPEECH BY TRADITION DRAWS SENT ONLY BY MOUTH, RESULTING IN LOSS OF TECHNICAL INFORMATION IMPORTANT. AND 'THAT SHOULD BE CARRIED OUT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE INTENTION OF THIS BOOK; SAY IS TO MAKE LIGHT RESEARCH WING CHUN AND EXPECIALLY IN THE IP MAN'S SYSTEM, BUT ALSO TO BE ABLE TO SEND THIS KNOWLEDGE IN A MANNER NOT TOO SEGMENTED AND PRACTICE TO READERS AS THE ASPECTS COVERED OR LESS UNKNOWN, SOME OF THESE CONSIDERATIONS, INFORMATION MAY BE A CASE INSTEAD OF HIS-TORY, AND VOICES OF HALL PARTLY TRUE THAT MAY PROVE INACCURATE OR ENTIRELY. SURELY I MADE FROM MY PART IN MY LITTLE AS POSSIBLE TO KEEP IN ONLY THOSE CONSIDERATIONS THAT I APPEAR THROUGH PROCESS COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT READING MATERIAL, THE MOST REALISTIC AND ESPECIALLY WITH A GLIMMER OF DOCUMENTATION. IF THERE ARE ANY ERRORS OR ANY ERROR CALL ALL READERS TELL ME IN ORDER TO CORRECT THIS JOB AND TO BE ABLE TO IMPROVE.

Book The Amateur American

    Book Details:
  • Author : Joel Saunders Elmore
  • Publisher : Crown
  • Release : 2009-08-04
  • ISBN : 0307452883
  • Pages : 322 pages

Download or read book The Amateur American written by Joel Saunders Elmore and published by Crown. This book was released on 2009-08-04 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes the hardest boundaries to see . . .are the ones you’ve already crossed. Twenty-nine-year-old Jeffrey Delanne is teaching English in France but having a tough time stretching his measly paycheck one month to the next. When he’s not worrying about his bar tab, he’s struggling with the language, trying to justify his country’s “imperialist” actions to every French person in sight, and wondering just what the hell he’s doing abroad. Desperate for a few quick euros, Jeffrey takes on some translating work for an eccentric Arab businessman. But the job turns ugly, and Jeffrey is forced to do things he never thought himself capable of, torn among guilt, a host of criminal impulses, and a haunting paranoia he’d never known back home. But maybe it’s not just paranoia. Soon Jeffrey’s colleagues, his students, and even the women in his life begin hinting at dark secrets, and Jeffrey starts to suspect that he’s been lured into a brutal game whose implications go far beyond this unassuming corner of the world. Now his life may depend on his willingness to transform himself into something–someone–who’ll stop at nothing to survive.

Book The Picture Collector s Manual  Adapted to the Professional Man  and the Amateur  Being  A Dictionary of Painters     Together with an

Download or read book The Picture Collector s Manual Adapted to the Professional Man and the Amateur Being A Dictionary of Painters Together with an written by James R. Hobbes and published by . This book was released on 1849 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Amateur

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert Littell
  • Publisher : Soho Press Inc
  • Release : 2025-03-11
  • ISBN : 1641296887
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book The Amateur written by Robert Littell and published by Soho Press Inc. This book was released on 2025-03-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A spy thriller classic, soon to be a major motion picture starring Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe, and Laurence Fishburne Before Robert Littell vaulted onto the bestseller lists with his New York Times bestselling CIA novel The Company, The Amateur established him as a contemporary master of the espionage thriller. Charlie Heller is an ace cryptographer for the CIA, a quiet man in a quiet back-office job. But when his fiancée is murdered by terrorists and the Agency decides not to pursue her killers, Heller takes matters into his own hands. The fact that he is an amateur makes him all the more dangerous. Mind-blowing in its intelligence, pulse-pounding in its suspense, The Amateur is a sleek and stunning novel of revenge. Now a major motion picture from 20th Century Studios starring Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe, and Laurence Fishburne.

Book Amateur City

    Book Details:
  • Author : Katherine V. Forrest
  • Publisher : Spinsters Ink
  • Release : 2011-01-01
  • ISBN : 1935226797
  • Pages : 194 pages

Download or read book Amateur City written by Katherine V. Forrest and published by Spinsters Ink. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tough and demanding LAPD Detective Kate Delafield is the leader of the investigation into a highrise office building murder. The case is intriguing but routine—until Kate interviews the only witness, Ellen O’Neil. When Ellen O’Neil took her new job over the objections of her lover, she wasn’t expecting to become embroiled in murder. The curiosity that Kate Delafield rouses is equally unexpected. But it is never far from Ellen’s mind that she is merely a name on an interview sheet to the tight-lipped detective. Kate’s thin trail of clues are enough to convince her that she is looking for an amateur, and amateurs are notoriously unpredictable and dangerous. She finds her path increasingly intersecting with that of Ellen O’Neil, who is proving unpredictable and dangerous in a far more personal way. AMATEUR CITY is the first novel in the compelling Kate Delafield mystery series that has gripped readers all over the world.

Book The Amateurs

    Book Details:
  • Author : David Halberstam
  • Publisher : Open Road Media
  • Release : 2012-12-18
  • ISBN : 1453295135
  • Pages : 251 pages

Download or read book The Amateurs written by David Halberstam and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2012-12-18 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In “one of the best books ever written about a sport,” Halberstam chronicles the story of four amateur US rowers and their 1984 Olympic dream (Newsweek). In 1984, rowing was a sport continually relegated to the margins, far from the spotlights attracted by other Olympic events. That year, four men went head-to-head for the right to compete for gold as the United States’ single sculler, an honor that would lead not to lucrative endorsement deals, but to the fleeting glory of the Olympic Games, and the satisfaction of ranking supreme among their competitive community of oarsmen. In pursuit of that goal, the rowers pushed through crippling pain, delaying personal relationships and careers, all for the rush of winning. Determined to understand these athletes of a seemingly bygone era, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author David Halberstam chronicles their bravery and obsession, delivering a dramatic human story, buzzing with adrenaline, about the lengths to which athletes will go to prove their mettle and compete on the highest level. This ebook features an extended biography of David Halberstam.

Book The Amateurs

    Book Details:
  • Author : Sara Shepard
  • Publisher : Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
  • Release : 2016-11-04
  • ISBN : 1484747356
  • Pages : 466 pages

Download or read book The Amateurs written by Sara Shepard and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2016-11-04 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five years ago, high school senior Helena Kelly disappeared from her backyard in Dexby, Connecticut, never to be heard from again. Her family was left without any answers -- without any idea who killed Helena, or why. So when eighteen-year-old Seneca Frazier sees a desperate post on the Case Not Closed message board, she knows it's time to change that. Helena's high-profile disappearance is the one that originally got Seneca addicted to true crime. It's the reason she's a member of the site in the first place. Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, she agrees to spend spring break in Connecticut working on the case with Maddy Wright, her friend from Case Not Closed. However, the moment she steps off the train, things start to go wrong. Maddy's nothing like she expected, and Helena's sister, Aerin, doesn't seem to want any help after all. Plus, Seneca has a secret of her own, one that could derail the investigation if she's not careful. Alongside Brett, another super-user from the site, they slowly begin to unravel the secrets Helena kept in the weeks before her disappearance. But the killer is watching . . . and determined to make sure the case stays cold. #1 New York Times best-selling author Sara Shepard is back with The Amateurs, first in a gripping new series packed with scandalous twists, shocking betrayals, and sizzling romance. "Shepard . . . unravels the truth, the author lulls readers into a false sense of security before expertly pulling the rug out from underneath them. This is a delicious start to the Amateurs series." -Publishers Weekly, starred review "A twisty and ultimately satisfying romantic whodunit." -Kirkus Reviews "[L]ikely to reach best-seller status." -Booklist "A delicious and suspenseful page-turner. I want more!" -I. Marlene King, Executive Producer, Pretty Little Liars "Chilling and romantic and full of surprises." -Cecily von Ziegesar, New York Times best-selling author of the Gossip Girl series "Long live the queen of secrets! The Amateurs is a dark and twisty thriller which might just fill the Pretty Little Liars shaped hole in my heart!" -Danielle Paige, New York Times best-selling author of Dorothy Must Die "Deceitful and delicious!" -- Kami Garcia, #1 New York Times best-selling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures and author of The Lovely Reckless "It's clear that Sara Shepard is no amateur; her devious and thrilling twists will leave you frantically turning pages until the very last moment." -- Kass Morgan, New York Times best-selling author of The 100 series

Book The Measure of a Man

Download or read book The Measure of a Man written by JJ Lee and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2011-09-27 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FINALIST - Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction (2012) FINALIST - Governor General's Literary Award - Non-Fiction (2012) FINALIST - BC Book Prize's Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (2012) A son’s decision to alter his father’s last surviving suit for himself is the launching point for this powerful book – part personal memoir, part social history of the man’s suit – about fathers and sons, love and forgiveness, and learning what it means to be a man. For years, journalist and amateur tailor JJ Lee tried to ignore the suit hanging at the back of his closet. It was his father’s suit. But when JJ decides to make the suit his own, little does he know he is about to embark on a journey to understand his own past. As JJ cuts into the jacket, he begins to piece together the story of his relationship with his father, a charismatic but troubled Montreal restauranteur whose demons brought tumult upon his family. JJ also recounts his own ups and downs during the year he spent as an apprentice at Modernize Tailors – the last of the great Chinatown suitmakers in Vancouver – where, under the tutelage of his octogenarian master tailor, he learns invaluable lessons about life. Woven throughout JJ’s tale are stories of the suit’s own evolution, illuminating how this humble garment has, for centuries, been the surprising battleground for the war between generations. Written with great wit, bracing honesty, and narrative verve, and featuring line drawings throughout by the author, The Measure of a Man is an unforgettable story of love, forgiveness, and discovering what it means to be your own man.

Book Manhood for Amateurs

Download or read book Manhood for Amateurs written by Michael Chabon and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-01-24 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pulitzer Prize winning author -- “an immensely gifted writer and a magical prose stylist” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) -- offers his first major work of nonfiction, an autobiographical narrative as inventive, beautiful, and powerful as critics and readers have come to expect. A shy manifesto, an impractical handbook, the true story of a fabulist, an entire life in parts and pieces: MANHOOD FOR AMATEURS is the first sustained work of personal writing from Michael Chabon. In these insightful, provocative, slyly interlinked essays, one of our most brilliant and humane writers presents his autobiography and his vision of life in the way so many of us experience our own: as a series of reflections, regrets and re-examinations, each sparked by an encounter, in the present, that holds some legacy of the past. What does it mean to be a man today? Chabon invokes and interprets and struggles to reinvent for us, with characteristic warmth and lyric wit, the personal and family history that haunts him even as -- simply because -- it goes on being written every day. As a devoted son, as a passionate husband, and above all as the father of four young Americans, Chabon’s memories of childhood, of his parents’ marriage and divorce, of moments of painful adolescent comedy and giddy encounters with the popular art and literature of his own youth, are like a theme played -- on different instruments, with a fresh tempo and in a new key -- by the mad quartet of which he now finds himself co-conductor. At once dazzling, hilarious, and moving, MANHOOD FOR AMATEURS is destined to become a classic.