Download or read book The Contortionist s Handbook written by Craig Clevenger and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2025-01-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a new foreward from bestselling and Edgar award-winning author Jordan Harper, this reissue of the cult classic The Contortionist's Handbook follows a talented forger who continually reinvents himself to escape the authorities. A great read for fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Irvine Welsh. Following a near fatal overdose of painkillers, Daniel Fletcher is resuscitated in a Los Angeles emergency room and detained for psychiatric evaluation. Through a series of questions and tests, the psychiatrist must ascertain whether the patient intended to kill himself, or whether he can walk free. What the psychiatrist doesn't know is that 'Daniel Fletcher' is actually John – Johnny – Dolan Vincent, a brilliant young forger who continually changes his identity to save himself from a lifetime of incarceration. Johnny has done such assessments before – many, many times. As he creates an elaborate bluff for the evaluator, Johnny reveals the true story of his traumatic past – a broken family, descent into the sinister world of forgers and criminals, and his one chance of salvation in the beautiful and elusive Molly. But time is running out; as his underworld clients lose patience and the psychiatrist's net closes around him, Johnny has to negotiate the escape act of his life. Evoking the boulevards and strip bars of 1980s LA with cinematic intensity, The Contortionist's Handbook is a darkly hypnotic and stunningly original debut.
Download or read book The Contortionists written by Robert H. van Wagoner and published by Signature Books. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When five-year-old Joshua Christopher disappears off the street as he walks to a friend's birthday party, his family if forced to confront the unimaginable. What happened? Why? Who took him? The convicted sex offender caught lurking near the search? Why won't police leave his family, his parents, alone? In his second novel, his first in twenty years, Robert H. Van Wagoner explores a family in extremis tottering at the edge of faith: in God and church, in family, and in marriage, in the institutions that promise safety and meaning. Both lyrical and explosive, The Contortionists unfolds as a page-turning mystery. Van Wagoner's wrenching narrative propels the reader forward, toward the novel's harrowing climax, while deftly unpacking its major themes--mental illness, sexuality, and substance abuse in a culture that would rather not confront them. Does the truth ever set anyone ultimately free? The stakes for Joshua and his family could not be greater.
Download or read book Contortion German Wheels and Other Mind Bending Circus Science written by Marcia Amidon Lusted and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2017-08 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever watch the circus and wonder, "how do they do that?" Find the answers in this book! Readers will learn about some of the most mind-bending circus acts, from contortionists to human pyramids, and the science that makes them possible. Short, simple activities help demonstrate the science for readers.
Download or read book Collection Or Contortion written by Gerd Heuschmann and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten years ago, Dr. Gerd Heuschmann rocked the equestrian world with his international bestseller Tug of war, a searing indictment of modern training and riding techniques that are sometimes used to the detriment of the horse. Now Dr. Heuschmann returns with this new book: a critical examination of two conceptsflexion and bendthat are necessary to understand in absolute terms when the goal is to achieve collection on horseback. Citing the many masters of classical dressage who wrote essays and even entire books about flexion at the horse's poll and longitudinal bend of the horse's body, Dr. Heuschmann strives to conflate the often complex classic literature with the results of his own studies as an expert in equine anatomy and biomechanics, supporting his explanations with precise illustrations and numerous photographs. The outcome is a book that finally makes the concepts of flexion and bendand ultimately, collectioneasy to understand, promising more correct, conscientious riding, better results in training and competition, and happier, healthier horses in the long run.
Download or read book The Abyssinian Contortionist written by David Carlin and published by Apollo Books. This book was released on 2015 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sosina Wogayehu learned to do flips and splits at the age of six, sitting on the floor of her parents' living room in Addis Ababa, watching a German variety show on the only television channel in the land. She sold cigarettes on the Ethiopian streets at the age of eight, and she played table soccer with her friends who made money from washing cars, barefoot in the dust. And, she dreamed of being a circus performer. Twenty-five years later, Sosina has conjured herself a new life in a far-off country: Australia. Along the way, she helped rescue one brother, yet she lost another. Sosina has traveled the world as a professional contortionist, capable of bounce-juggling eight balls on a block of marble. She performed with Circus Oz (Australia's premier circus company) from 2002-2009, and she appeared in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong. Sosina was also a 2007 nominee for the Australian of the Year Award. Additionally, Sosina has been able to juggle worlds and stories, and, by luck - which is something she is not short of - she is friends with author David Carlin. Following his acclaimed memoir Our Father Who Wasn't There, David Carlin brings us his 'not-me' book, traveling to Addis Ababa where he discovers ways of living so different from his own and where he confronts his Western fantasies and fears. Through Sosina's story, David shows us that, with risk and enough momentum, life's circumstances are never predictable: whom we befriend, where we end up, and how we come to see ourselves. *** "...Carlin is a master storyteller who is well-equipped for the challenge of capturing the life of a woman about whose culture, at the outset, he knows practically nothing. The subject of The Abyssinian Contortionist is clearly a remarkable person of unusual social mobility and ability, yet Carlin manages to navigate the high-wire act of astute observation without falling into hagiography....his writing is so crisp and vivid that, on reading its final pages, I felt a deep satisfaction and a longing for more. - Andrew McMillen, The Australian, May 2015Ã?Â?Ã?Â?Ã?Â?Ã?Â?[Subject: Biography, African Studies, Australian Studies, Women's Studies, Refugee Studies, Diaspora Studies]
Download or read book Twisted Tales written by Otgo Waller and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At age seven, Otgo first fell in love with the beautiful art form that is contortion; and since then, she has never changed her mind. Throughout her life, her goal of being one of the top contortionists has not been a smooth journey. From the grasp of a socialist country, she escaped a morose childhood and transformed herself into a world famous performer. This is the story of Otgo reaching for the rare treat of success that seemed almost impossible as any challenge could have overtaken her. Since she was armed with intense devotion to her success, contortion saved her life and gifted Otgo with many opportunities.
Download or read book Acts of Contortion written by Anna Meek and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In poems that are by turns witty, lush, and unflinching, Acts of Contortion explores the gestures of both hurtfulness and compassion. Whether set in a shelter for battered women, in the midst of a political demonstration, or at the center of an orchestra, the poems pursue the place of language in an injurious world. The political conscience at work is feminist, pacifist, and at odds with itself. Anna George Meek finds that the brutal and the compassionate are sometimes indistinguishable, born of our need to make contact outside of ourselves. These gestures--of music, of touch, of poetry--appear in the poems as the violin, domestic abuse, and words to comfort a woman in pain. The poems argue: difficult yet imperative, the attempt to gesture beyond ourselves is an act of contortion.
Download or read book This Is a Book written by Demetri Martin and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2011-04-25 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the renowned comedian, creator, star and executive producer/multiple title-holder of Comedy Central's Important Things with Demetri Martin comes a bold, original, and rectangular kind of humor book. Demetri's first literary foray features longer-form essays and conceptual pieces (such as Protagonists' Hospital, a melodrama about the clinic doctors who treat only the flesh wounds and minor head scratches of Hollywood action heroes), as well as his trademark charts, doodles, drawings, one-liners, and lists (i.e., the world views of optimists, pessimists and contortionists), Martin's material is varied, but his unique voice and brilliant mind will keep readers in stitches from beginning to end.
Download or read book Hoaxes Humbugs and Spectacles written by Mark Sloan and published by New York : Villard Books. This book was released on 1990 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Night Circus written by Erin Morgenstern and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in the spellbinding novel that captured the world's imagination. • "Part love story, part fable ... defies both genres and expectations." —The Boston Globe The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.
Download or read book Dancing Naked written by Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terry Walker is an even-tempered, successful mathematics professor, comfortable with his world--the order and predictability of it. He likes the kind of life one lives in a quiet Salt Lake City subdivision. At his children's births, he masks his terror with numbers--his wife's contractions and dilations, blood pressure, heart rate. At funerals he absorbs his grief by calculating the cubic feet of earth the coffin and vault will displace. But control is illusive, something his fifteen-year-old son Blake never lets him forget. A sensitive boy, Blake has refused to eat meat since the time he could walk. Fearing he will hurt his friends' feelings, Blake withdraws from a spelling bee that he could easily win. More importantly, however, Blake harbors a secret that he keeps from Terry. Driving this important first novel are issues and characters Thomas Mann himself would have found compelling. Terry Walker's inability to accept what he knows and does not know about his child, what he possibly could never accept, exacts a high price. Almost at the threshold of insanity, the father begins waging a war against a powerful chaos. Van Wagoner takes his readers beyond a simple foretelling of what happens in such situations to deep beneath the story's skin, to a place readers will find familiar and perhaps even irresistible. Tim Sandlin has commented on Dancing Naked (Sandlin is the author of Skipped Parts, a New York Times "Notable Book."), noting how "remarkably clean" Van Wagoner's prose is. He calls him a "first-rate writer" and adds that he "stares deep into the heart of intolerance, grief, and redemption, and does not blink." David Lee (Western States Book Award for My Town) considers Van Wagoner "the best contemporary writer in Utah." Elaborating, he writes: "Reading Van Wagoner is like opening a can of biscuits: there's the pop, the swelling, the aroma of fresh dough, and the anticipation of flavor. And the wonder: how can he fit so much into such a small vessel?" Similarly, Levi Peterson (Association for Mormon Letters Book Award for Canyons of Grace) praises the "mastery of language" and "perfectly cadenced sentences" in Dancing Naked. He says that it is remarkable that Van Wagoner can so perfectly present "the effects of male ego--a punitive anger turned against homosexuality--upon three generations of a family."
Download or read book The Greatest Shows on Earth written by Linda Simon and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2014-11-12 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beautifully illustrated and filled with rich historical detail and colorful anecdotes, this is a vibrant history for all those who have ever dreamed of running away to the circus, now in paperback. “Step right up!” and buy a ticket to the Greatest Show on Earth—the Big Top, containing death-defying stunts, dancing bears, roaring tigers, and trumpeting elephants. The circus has always been home to the dazzling and the exotic, the improbable and the impossible—a place of myth and romance, of reinvention, rebirth, second acts, and new identities. Asking why we long to soar on flying trapezes, ride bareback on spangled horses, and parade through the streets in costumes of glitter and gold, this captivating book illuminates the history of the circus and the claim it has on the imaginations of artists, writers, and people around the world. Traveling back to the circus’s early days, Linda Simon takes us to eighteenth-century hippodromes in Great Britain and intimate one-ring circuses in nineteenth-century Paris, where Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso became enchanted with aerialists and clowns. She introduces us to P. T. Barnum, James Bailey, and the enterprising Ringling Brothers and reveals how they created the golden age of American circuses. Moving forward to the whimsical Circus Oz in Australia and to New York City’s Big Apple Circus and the grand spectacle of Cirque du Soleil, she shows how the circus has transformed in recent years. At the center of the story are the people—trick riders and tightrope walkers, sword swallowers and animal trainers, contortionists and clowns—that created the sensational, raucous, and sometimes titillating world of the circus.
Download or read book Into the Spotlight written by Carrie Hope Fletcher and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2020-09-17 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by the much-loved classic Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, Into the Spotlight is a magical new story from bestselling author and acclaimed performer Carrie Hope Fletcher. Brilliant Aunt Maude visits seasides the world over and has become quite the pebble collector. Pebbles of all shapes, sizes and colours and even one that looked a bit like Elvis Presley if you squinted a bit. Her favourite pebbles, however, are Marigold, Mabel and Morris. One by one, and by strange and unusual ways, each child arrives at the stage door of Brilliant Aunt Maude's theatre in the heart of London, home to an extraordinary cast of performers. There's Dante the miraculous magician, Petunia the storyteller and seventy-year-old contortionists - the Fortune Sisters! But ticket sales are dwindling and the curtains might have to close - for the final time. Until one day, as the Pebbles are exploring the many nooks and crannies of the theatre, they stumble upon something they were never meant to find . . . something that just might save the theatre after all . . .
Download or read book Contortionist Rising written by Si Jamo and published by . This book was released on 2018-10-21 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tia is remarkable, alluring and quite unique. So flexible is her extraordinary body, that she can contort herself into positions, beyond the imagination, beyond belief. She meets Patrick - fate has apparently brought them together. He will give her all the help and encouragement she needs to develop her remarkable talents to the extreme and let the world know how special she really is. A consequence while contorted to the extreme is a powerful sexual ecstasy. Only Patrick and his unusual assets can deal with her pleasant affliction.
Download or read book Circus written by Linda Granfield and published by Dk Pub. This book was released on 2000-06-01 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the history of circuses from the time of ancient Egypt and Greece through their evolution in eighteenth-century Europe to the spectacles created by P.T. Barnum and other modern-day showmen.
Download or read book Scribner s Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Flexible Families written by Caitlin Fouratt and published by Vanderbilt University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-15 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flexible Families examines the struggles among Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica (and their families back in Nicaragua) to maintain a sense of family across borders. The book is based on more than twenty-four months of ethnographic fieldwork in Costa Rica and Nicaragua (between 2009 and 2012) and more than ten years of engagement with Nicaraguan migrant communities. Author Caitlin Fouratt finds that migration and family intersect as sites for triaging inequality, economic crisis, and a lack of state-provided social services. The book situates transnational families in an analysis of the history of unstable family life in Nicaragua due to decades of war and economic crisis, rather than in the migration process itself, which is often blamed for family breakdown in public discourse. Fouratt argues that the kinds of family configurations often seen as problematic consequences of migration—specifically single mothers, absent fathers, and grandmother caregivers—represent flexible family configurations that have enabled Nicaraguan families to survive the chronic crises of the past decades. By examining the work that goes into forging and sustaining transnational kinship, the book argues for a rethinking of national belonging and discourses of solidarity. In parallel, the book critically examines conditions in Costa Rica, especially the ways the instabilities and inequalities that have haunted the rest of the region have begun to take shape there, resulting in perceptions of increased crime rates and a declining quality of life. By linking this crisis of Costa Rican exceptionalism to recent immigration reform, the book also builds on scholarship about the production and experiences of immigrant exclusion. Flexible Families offers insight into the impacts of increasingly restrictive immigration policies in the everyday lives of transnational families within the developing world.
