In the gripping first-person accounts of High Rise Stories, former residents of Chicago’s iconic public housing projects describe life in the now-demolished high-rises. These stories of community, displacement, and poverty in the wake of gentrification give voice to those who have long been ignored, but whose hopes and struggles exist firmly at the heart of our national identity.
What Hurricane Katrina reveals about the fault lines of race and poverty in America-and what lessons we must take from the flood-from best-selling ''hip-hop intellectual'' Michael Eric Dyson Does George W. Bush care about black people? Does the rest of America? When Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, hundreds of thousands were left behind to suffer the ravages of destruction, disease, and even death. The majority of these people were black; nearly all were poor. The federal government's slow response to local appeals for help is by now notorious. Yet despite the cries of outrage that have mounted since the levees broke, we have failed to confront the disaster's true lesson; to be poor, or black, in today's ownership society, is to be left behind. Displaying the intellectual rigor, political passion, and personal empathy that have won him fans across the color line, Michael Eric Dyson offers a searing assessment of the meaning of Hurricane Katrina. Combining interviews with survivors of the disaster with his deep knowledge of black migrations and government policy over decades, Dyson provides the historical context that has been sorely missing from public conversation. He explores the legacy of black suffering in America since slavery, including the shocking ways that black people are framed in the national consciousness even today. With this call-to-action, Dyson warns us that we can only find redemption as a society if we acknowledge that Katrina was more than an engineering or emergency response failure. From the TV newsroom to the Capitol Building to the backyard, we must change the ways we relate to the black and the poor among us. What's at stake is no less than the future of democracy.
The High Rise is a satirical look at the decisions people make in everyday life and how those decisions have future consequences, also making allowance for forces that are outside of human control. The main characters, Allie and Trudy, through little fault of their own, find themselves dead after a multiple car pile-up on Pacific Coast Highway. Arbitrarily, they are thrown in Hell by two rouges from Heaven's escort service. Lou, the Devil, senses they should not be there, and calls Corporate in an attempt to help these girls reach Heaven. Will he succeed? Read more, as the plot unfolds.
"Harsh and ingenious! High Rise is an intense and vivid bestiary, which lingers unsettlingly in the mind." —Martin Amis, New Statesman When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on “enemy” floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.
Things get a little devilish in the sixth Broken Heart novel from New York Times bestselling author Michele Bardsley. Everybody makes mistakes—my first one was named Connor, a heart-stealing Scottish hottie. I thought our night together was the beautiful beginning to a love story, which turned out to be my second mistake. I, Phoebe Allen, lifelong Broken Heart resident and vampire, am now mated to a half-demon. Thankfully Phoebe's four-year-old son Danny is safely away at Disneyworld with his human father. Because Phoebe's right in the middle of major paranormal drama, helping Connor and his rag-tag group of friends retrieve part of an ancient talisman in order to ward off Connor's vicious stepmother, an uber-demon named Lilith. Phoebe swears she isn't falling for any of Connor's demon charm. But still, he's willing to do anything to protect her and prevent demons from storming into Broken Heart. And her undead heart can't resist a bad boy with identity issues...
The genesis and aftermath of the print edition's death knell. In May 2012, the New York Times broke a story that the internationally acclaimed, locally beloved, Pulitzer Prize-winning New Orleans Times-Picayune would become a three-day-a-week publication. The profitable newspaper slashed its veteran newsroom, antagonized the city, state, and nation, and jeopardized its vaunted reputation-all in an effort to create a new blueprint for American newspapers in the increasingly digital world. Here is the insider's account of the outrage, betrayal, and aftermath of the death of the daily edition of the Times-Picayune.
Captain Mark Winslow, NYPD, a former sheriff in Montana, moves to Manhattan after the horrific death of his wife and son in a car accident. Celibate for six years, he meets and falls in love with Attorney Kristen Miller, who lives in a Park Avenue high-rise apartment. Captain Winslow's efforts to capture two psychopaths - rapists of the worst kind - intermingle with his love life, family, friends and his six year old daughter, Pamela, who twists him like a pretzel with her logic. The rapists hold Kristen Miller captive and Captain Winslow, never one to go strictly by the rules, uses any means to rescue her.
In Hell's Kitchen, New York City, to work on a low-budget documentary on the area's colorful history, ex-stuntman-turned-location-scout John Pellam finds himself investigating a series of suspicious fires that may be linked to efforts to hide the past.
A study of how China’s changing economy may leave its rural communities in the dust and launch a political and economic disaster. As the glittering skyline in Shanghai seemingly attests, China has quickly transformed itself from a place of stark poverty into a modern, urban, technologically savvy economic powerhouse. But as Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell show in Invisible China, the truth is much more complicated and might be a serious cause for concern. China’s growth has relied heavily on unskilled labor. Most of the workers who have fueled the country’s rise come from rural villages and have never been to high school. While this national growth strategy has been effective for three decades, the unskilled wage rate is finally rising, inducing companies inside China to automate at an unprecedented rate and triggering an exodus of companies seeking cheaper labor in other countries. Ten years ago, almost every product for sale in an American Walmart was made in China. Today, that is no longer the case. With the changing demand for labor, China seems to have no good back-up plan. For all of its investment in physical infrastructure, for decades China failed to invest enough in its people. Recent progress may come too late. Drawing on extensive surveys on the ground in China, Rozelle and Hell reveal that while China may be the second-largest economy in the world, its labor force has one of the lowest levels of education of any comparable country. Over half of China’s population—as well as a vast majority of its children—are from rural areas. Their low levels of basic education may leave many unable to find work in the formal workplace as China’s economy changes and manufacturing jobs move elsewhere. In Invisible China, Rozelle and Hell speak not only to an urgent humanitarian concern but also a potential economic crisis that could upend economies and foreign relations around the globe. If too many are left structurally unemployable, the implications both inside and outside of China could be serious. Understanding the situation in China today is essential if we are to avoid a potential crisis of international proportions. This book is an urgent and timely call to action that should be read by economists, policymakers, the business community, and general readers alike. Praise for Invisible China “Stunningly researched.” —TheEconomist, Best Books of the Year (UK) “Invisible China sounds a wake-up call.” —The Strategist “Not to be missed.” —Times Literary Supplement (UK) “[Invisible China] provides an extensive coverage of problems for China in the sphere of human capital development . . . the book is rich in content and is not constrained only to China, but provides important parallels with past and present developments in other countries.” —Journal of Chinese Political Science
Exactly how Collingwood had been built, how she had assumed a completely new identity and personality, just what frightening, sinister debts had been incurred in the process I didn't yet know. The final piece of the puzzle was coming whenever I was ready to listen, but I already dearly loved the person incurring the debts and I already understood why they had been incurred. Nancy was fleeing from a first degree murder charge, a case no doubt still open on the books of the Hoboken Police Department. I had followed those Waterfront Commission hearings Warren brought up with some interest back in 1966. When he mentioned them this morning, I vaguely recalled a murdered federal informant by the name of Deluca being mentioned by several witnesses. It may not have been the same guy. I may have remembered the name wrong. But if he was, the case was open with the FBI as well.
