The Second Mark

The Second Mark

Author: Joy Goodwin

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2010-06-15

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 1451603835

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It was billed as the greatest event in the history of pair skating: three of the best teams of all time battling for Olympic gold on one night in Salt Lake City. Technical ability was approximately equal. It was the artistic merit score that would decide the gold medal -- the second mark. Representing Canada, China, and Russia, the three pairs illuminated their distinct cultures. On the second mark, whose culture would triumph? Would it be the beauty of the Russians' ballet on ice, the thrill of the Chinese pair's heart-stopping acrobatics, or the Canadians' passionate connection with the audience? In a down-to-the-wire nail-biter, the difference between gold and silver came down to the vote of a single judge. Hours later, a bombshell: the confession of a French judge unleashed a worldwide debate -- and ultimately produced an unprecedented duplicate gold medal. The Second Mark reveals what an athlete really goes through to become the best in the world, through the riveting stories of unforgettable people. We meet Yelena Berezhnaya of Russia, who survives emergency brain surgery after a near-fatal training accident and makes it back to the Olympics in less than two years. We meet Zhao Hongbo, a young boy skating in subzero weather in remotest China, who will fulfill his coach's twenty-year dream of catching up to the West. And we meet two Canadians, a barista and a concession stand worker, who had almost quit the sport before deciding to give it one last try -- and becoming world champions. Exhaustively researched by a skating insider, The Second Mark takes readers deep into the world of the Olympic athlete, illuminating the fascinating differences between East and West. From the frozen fields of China to the secret corridors of the old Soviet sports system, from a tiny farm village in remotest Quebec to the judges' backstage world, The Second Mark tells the compelling human stories behind one of the most controversial nights in Olympic history.


The Victory According to Mark

The Victory According to Mark

Author: Mark Horne

Publisher: Canon Press & Book Service

Published: 2002-12

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1591280079

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The Victory According to Mark is a commentary on the second gospel of Mark.


The Second Objective

The Second Objective

Author: Mark Frost

Publisher: Hachette+ORM

Published: 2007-04-10

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 140138773X

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Bestselling author Mark Frost makes a triumphant return to fiction with this riveting World War II thriller, based on a shocking real-life German operation run by "the most dangerous man in Europe." Fall 1944. Germany is losing, and the Americans are starting to hope they'll be home for Christmas. Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny, "Hitler's Commando," famed for his daring rescue of the imprisoned Mussolini, has just received orders for Operation Greif: He is to assemble a new brigade of 2,000 men, all of whom speak English, and send them behind Allied lines disguised as GIs, where they will wreak havoc in advance of a savage new offensive. And from those men, Skorzeny is to select a smaller group, made up of the twenty most highly skilled commandos fluent in American culture, to attempt an even more sinister mission--the second objective--which, if completed, not only would change the course of the war, but would change the course of history. Filled with real characters and details only recently released by the United States military, The Second Objective is historical fiction at its most pulse-pounding, its most unpredictable, and its most compulsively readable.


The Gospel on the Margins

The Gospel on the Margins

Author: Michael J. Kok

Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 1451490224

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Despite virtually unanimous patristic association of the Gospel of Mark with the apostle Peter, the Gospel was mostly neglected by those same writers. Michael J. Kok surveys the second-century reception of Mark, from Papias of Hierapolis to Clement of Alexandria, and finds that the patristic writers were hesitant to embrace Mark because they perceived it to be too easily adapted to rival Christian factions. Kok describes the story of Marks Petrine origins as a second-century move to assert ownership of the Gospel on the part of the emerging Orthodox Church.


The Gospel According to Mark

The Gospel According to Mark

Author:

Publisher: Canongate Books

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 73

ISBN-13: 0857860976

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The earliest of the four Gospels, the book portrays Jesus as an enigmatic figure, struggling with enemies, his inner and external demons, and with his devoted but disconcerted disciples. Unlike other gospels, his parables are obscure, to be explained secretly to his followers. With an introduction by Nick Cave


Reading Mark

Reading Mark

Author: Sharyn Echols Dowd

Publisher: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Inc.

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9781573122887

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Dowd examines the Gospel of Mark from literary and theological perspectives, suggesting what the text may have meant to its first-century audience of Gentile and Jewish Christians. Mark is a Greco-Roman biography of Jesus written in an apocalyptic mode. Its theology is based on the message of the prophet Isaiah- the proclamation of release from bondage and a march toward freedom along the "way of the Lord."


Take That Adolf!

Take That Adolf!

Author: Mark Fertig

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books

Published: 2017-03-22

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1606999877

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Between 1941 and 1945, Hitler was pummeled on comic book covers by everyone from Captain America to Wonder Woman. Take That, Adolf! is an oversized compilation of more than 500 stunningly restored comics covers published during World War II, featuring America’s greatest super-villain. From Superman and Daredevil to propaganda and racism, Take That, Adolf! is a fascinating look at how legendary creators such as Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Alex Schomburg, Will Eisner, and Lou Fine entertained millions of kids on the home front and buoyed the spirits of GIs fighting overseas by using Adolf Hitler as a punching bag.


The Second Mountain

The Second Mountain

Author: David Brooks

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2019-04-16

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0679645047

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Everybody tells you to live for a cause larger than yourself, but how exactly do you do it? The author of The Road to Character explores what it takes to lead a meaningful life in a self-centered world. “Deeply moving, frequently eloquent and extraordinarily incisive.”—The Washington Post Every so often, you meet people who radiate joy—who seem to know why they were put on this earth, who glow with a kind of inner light. Life, for these people, has often followed what we might think of as a two-mountain shape. They get out of school, they start a career, and they begin climbing the mountain they thought they were meant to climb. Their goals on this first mountain are the ones our culture endorses: to be a success, to make your mark, to experience personal happiness. But when they get to the top of that mountain, something happens. They look around and find the view . . . unsatisfying. They realize: This wasn’t my mountain after all. There’s another, bigger mountain out there that is actually my mountain. And so they embark on a new journey. On the second mountain, life moves from self-centered to other-centered. They want the things that are truly worth wanting, not the things other people tell them to want. They embrace a life of interdependence, not independence. They surrender to a life of commitment. In The Second Mountain, David Brooks explores the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community. Our personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. Brooks looks at a range of people who have lived joyous, committed lives, and who have embraced the necessity and beauty of dependence. He gathers their wisdom on how to choose a partner, how to pick a vocation, how to live out a philosophy, and how we can begin to integrate our commitments into one overriding purpose. In short, this book is meant to help us all lead more meaningful lives. But it’s also a provocative social commentary. We live in a society, Brooks argues, that celebrates freedom, that tells us to be true to ourselves, at the expense of surrendering to a cause, rooting ourselves in a neighborhood, binding ourselves to others by social solidarity and love. We have taken individualism to the extreme—and in the process we have torn the social fabric in a thousand different ways. The path to repair is through making deeper commitments. In The Second Mountain, Brooks shows what can happen when we put commitment-making at the center of our lives.


Two Roads Diverged

Two Roads Diverged

Author: Mark Sanford

Publisher: Vertel Publishing

Published: 2021-08-24

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1641120282

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No stranger to second chances, former governor and congressman Mark Sanford admits to twice having a “dead man walking,” politically. First in 2009, when an extramarital affair went public and lost him his marriage and the South Carolina governorship, and then again in 2018 when his criticism of Donald Trump resulted in the loss of his seat in Congress. In this revealing and brutally honest memoir and political analysis, Sanford first tells the story of his two very different falls and how the hard lessons he learned from the first led him to inevitably choosing the second by maintaining his integrity and opposing Trump. In TWO ROADS DIVERGED Sanford analyzes the immense harm he believes Trump's presidency of lies, cronyism, shady dealings, and bullying caused to our country, and especially to the Republican party. Within four years, the GOP was synonymous with fake news, extreme divisiveness, and brazen lies. Rather than becoming great again, the party had degenerated into a personality cult centered around Donald Trump.But Sanford strongly believes that the Republican party has a choice at its current crossroads. TWO ROADS DIVERGED is also a serious examination of what what fellow conservatives can do to help calm today's political waters and build a better future for both the party and the country. As he was, the GOP has been given a second chance...if those in the party are wise enough to recognize it, and brave enough to take it.