Oh the Glory of It All

Oh the Glory of It All

Author: Sean Wilsey

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2006-04-25

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 9780143036913

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“[An] irreverent and remarkably candid memoir about growing up in wealthy eighties San Francisco . . . rollicking, ruthless . . . ultimately generous-hearted.” —Vogue “A vivid mix of brio, self-awareness and sophistication . . . writing well is indeed the best revenge.” —The New York Times Book Review “A monumental piece of work.” —Kirkus Reviews “In the beginning we were happy. And we were always excessive. So in the beginning we were happy to excess.” With these opening lines Sean Wilsey takes us on an exhilarating tour of life in the strangest, wealthiest, and most grandiose of families. Sean's blond-bombshell mother (one of the thinly veiled characters in Armistead Maupin's bestselling Tales of the City) is a 1980s society-page staple, regularly entertaining Black Panthers and movie stars in her marble and glass penthouse, "eight hundred feet in the air above San Francisco; an apartment at the top of a building at the top of a hill: full of light, full of voices, full of windows full of water and bridges and hills." His enigmatic father uses a jet helicopter to drop Sean off at the video arcade and lectures his son on proper hygiene in public restrooms, "You should wash your hands first, before you use the urinal. Not after. Your penis isn't dirty. But your hands are." When Sean, "the kind of child who sings songs to sick flowers," turns nine years old, his father divorces his mother and marries her best friend. Sean's life blows apart. His mother first invites him to commit suicide with her, then has a "vision" of salvation that requires packing her Louis Vuitton luggage and traveling the globe, a retinue of multiracial children in tow. Her goal: peace on earth (and a Nobel Prize). Sean meets Indira Gandhi, Helmut Kohl, Menachem Begin, and the pope, hoping each one might come back to San Francisco and persuade his father to rejoin the family. Instead, Sean is pushed out of San Francisco and sent spiraling through five high schools, till he finally lands at an unorthodox reform school cum "therapeutic community," in Italy. With its multiplicity of settings and kaleidoscopic mix of preoccupations-sex, Russia, jet helicopters, seismic upheaval, boarding schools, Middle Earth, skinheads, home improvement, suicide, skateboarding, Sovietology, public transportation, massage, Christian fundamentalism, dogs, Texas, global thermonuclear war, truth, evil, masturbation, hope, Bethlehem, CT, eventual salvation (abridged list)—Oh the Glory of It All is memoir as bildungsroman as explosion.


Team 7-Eleven

Team 7-Eleven

Author: Geoff Drake

Publisher: VeloPress

Published: 2011-08-01

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 1937716058

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In 1980, there were exactly four professional bike racers in America. Six years later, an American cycling team would wear the coveted yellow jersey of the Tour de France. And that same team would go on to win Italy's greatest race--the Giro d'Italia--only two years later. Team 7-Eleven is the extraordinary story of how two Olympic speed skaters, Jim Ochowicz and Eric Heiden, pulled together a small group of amateur cyclists and turned them into one of the greatest cycling teams the sport has known. From humble beginnings in a barn in Pennsylvania to soaring victories in the French Alps, Team 7-Eleven is the complete history that has never been fully told--until now. The 7-Eleven Cycling Team--Team 7-Eleven for short--launched the careers of American cycling superstars Andy Hampsten, Davis Phinney, Bob Roll, Ron Kiefel, and many more. It also changed the cycling world, creating a new team structure based on multiple stars, unified goals, and personal sacrifice for the greater good. And yet at the time it was formed, the number of American cyclists with world-class experience could be counted--literally--on one hand. And the number of American teams that competed in Europe's biggest races was exactly zero. Team 7-Eleven is the amazing story of how two cycling fans found one exceptional sponsor and created the greatest American cycling team of its era. Written with the enthusiastic cooperation of the team members, Team 7-Eleven will impress cycling fans with behind-the-scenes stories of the team's founding, its growing pains, and its lasting success as the team that established America as a powerhouse in the world of professional cycling.


Under a Flaming Sky

Under a Flaming Sky

Author: Daniel Brown

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-02-01

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1493022016

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On September 1, 1894 two forest fires converged on the town of Hinckley, Minnesota, trapping over 2,000 people. Daniel J. Brown recounts the events surrounding the fire in the first and only book on to chronicle the dramatic story that unfolded. Whereas Oregon's famous "Biscuit" fire in 2002 burned 350,000 acres in one week, the Hinckley fire did the same damage in five hours. The fire created its own weather, including hurricane-strength winds, bubbles of plasma-like glowing gas, and 200-foot-tall flames. In some instances, "fire whirls," or tornadoes of fire, danced out from the main body of the fire to knock down buildings and carry flaming debris into the sky. Temperatures reached 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit--the melting point of steel. As the fire surrounded the town, two railroads became the only means of escape. Two trains ran the gauntlet of fire. One train caught on fire from one end to the other. The heroic young African-American porter ran up and down the length of the train, reassuring the passengers even as the flames tore at their clothes. On the other train, the engineer refused to back his locomotive out of town until the last possible minute of escape. In all, more than 400 people died, leading to a revolution in forestry management practices and federal agencies that monitor and fight wildfires today. Author Daniel Brown has woven together numerous survivors' stories, historical sources, and interviews with forest fire experts in a gripping narrative that tells the fascinating story of one of North America's most devastating fires and how it changed the nation.


Our Boys

Our Boys

Author: David Pierce

Publisher:

Published: 2023-05-31

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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The legacy began 100 years ago, when Ocilla beat Fitzgerald ... in football! It was a point in time when progressives in the region had drubbed Ocilla industrially. For many reasons, Ocilla, a little-known farming town, could not compete with anyone for growth and manufacturing jobs. Then Ocilla Hi started up football, and ... wham! Nobody saw Ocilla coming. At last, she had found her equalizer. The economic impact of football in Ocilla was nil, but from 1923 to 1928, the little school's band of outmanned but plucky lads gave boys from these bigger, faster towns the business in what was called the "great game." Somehow, although they never won all their games, the "clean" Ocilla team, generally known as the Terrapins, hailed as one of most feared outfits in the conference. A lot has happened since those days, when boys wore leather hats. Ocilla Hi is defunct and now it's Irwin County High School, but football remains richly woven into the cultural fabric of this small town in rural Georgia. Our Boys A team. A town. A history. A Way of life is an impassioned look at the sport that put Ocilla on the map. What they said about the book: - "Well written" - Derrell Young, ICHS class of 1971-72 - "Great book" - Jack Smith, ICHS class of 1965-66, who later played for the Philadelphia Eagles. - "As someone who enjoys looking back as much as I do looking forward at what high school football in Georgia is and what will be, this trip to Ocilla and Irwin County was an education and a treat to experience as David led the tour." - Jon Nelson, Senior Correspondent, GPB Radio, Author of Nobles Strong.


Morning Star

Morning Star

Author: Pierce Brown

Publisher: Del Rey

Published: 2016-02-09

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 0345539842

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Red Rising thrilled readers and announced the presence of a talented new author. Golden Son changed the game and took the story of Darrow to the next level. Now comes the exhilarating next chapter in the Red Rising Saga: Morning Star. ITW THRILLER AWARD FINALIST • “[Brown’s] achievement is in creating an uncomfortably familiar world of flaw, fear, and promise.”—Entertainment Weekly Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within. Finally, the time has come. But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender. Praise for Morning Star “There is no one writing today who does shameless, Michael Bay–style action set pieces the way Brown does. The battle scenes are kinetic, bloody, breathless, crazy. Everything is on fire all the time.”—NPR “Morning Star is this trilogy’s Return of the Jedi. . . . The impactful battles that make up most of Morning Star are damn near operatic. . . . It absolutely satisfies.”—Tordotcom “Excellent . . . Brown’s vivid, first-person prose puts the reader right at the forefront of impassioned speeches, broken families, and engaging battle scenes . . . as this interstellar civil war comes to a most satisfying conclusion.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A page-turning epic filled with twists and turns . . . The conclusion to Brown’s saga is simply stellar.”—Booklist (starred review) Don’t miss any of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga: RED RISING • GOLDEN SON • MORNING STAR • IRON GOLD • DARK AGE • LIGHT BRINGER


Releasing the Prophetic Destiny of a Nation

Releasing the Prophetic Destiny of a Nation

Author: Dutch Sheets

Publisher: Destiny Image Publishers

Published: 2005-05

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 0768422841

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At the same moment, God issued a separate call to two men---prophet Chuck Pierce and pastor Dutch Sheets---to heal the United States. As a prophetic act to realign our country to His covenant plan, the duo rallied apostles, prophets and intercessors from state-to-state to break the grip of demonic strongholds. Releasing the Prophetic Destiny of a Nation is the remarkable story behind their 50-state roadtrip to restore revival to America. Endowed with God-given keys of authority to reconcile America to its heavenly mandate, the two chronicle their efforts to purge the land of territorial and generational sin. Now is the time and season for a warfare anointing to rest upon America.


A Shot At History

A Shot At History

Author: Rohit Brijnath

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2011-10-11

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9350292963

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Abhinav Bindra once shot 100 out of 100 in practice six times in a row and walked out of the range unhappy. He is a perfectionist who once soled his shoes with rubber from Ferrari tyres because he thought it would help. He would wake up at 3 am to practise at his range at home if an idea suddenly struck him. It is from such obsession that greatness arrives. Abhinav Bindra's journey to become the first Indian to win an individual Olympic gold, and the first Indian to win a World Championship gold, is a story of single-minded passion. The Olympics has been an all-consuming journey for him ever since he was shattering beer bottles and glass ampoules in his garden in Chandigarh. No obstacle was too hard to overcome, no amount of practice too much, no experiment too futile and no defeat so severe that it made a comeback impossible. Shattered by his failure at the 2004 Athens Olympics when a gold medal seemed imminent, he changed as a shooter: from a boy who loved shooting, he became an athlete bent on redemption, a scientist who would try anything - from mapping his own brain to drinking yak milk to climbing rock walls - to win at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His victory was not just a personal triumph, it was a gift to his nation, a breaking down of a sporting barrier that had stood for a century. Bindra's feat has taught his peers, and those yet to come, that an Olympic gold isn't an impossible dream. In ranges, on fields, in arenas, Indian athletes now own a new belief, they wear the knowledge that no challenge is beyond them. Helping to tell this remarkable story is sportswriter Rohit Brijnath, who collaborated with Bindra in producing this compelling autobigraphy of one of India's greatest sportsmen.


Playgrounds to the Pros

Playgrounds to the Pros

Author: Caroline Denyer Gallacci

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780295984773

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Provides an extensive overview of the sports played in the region during the last 150 years


Legendary Motorcycles

Legendary Motorcycles

Author: Basem Wasef, Jay Leno

Publisher:

Published:

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 9781610590648

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Motorcycles are mythic, far more than mere transportation, but some are in a class of their own, truly legendary machines. There are the Triumphs: James Dean’s, Marlon Brando’s in The Wild Ones, the one Steve McQueen took over the fence in The Great Escape. There are Evel Knievel’s and Elvis’s Harleys, the Easy Rider Stars ‘n’ Stripes bike, and T. E. Lawrence’s Brough Superior SS100; Von Dutch’s Condor, Craig Vetter’s Mystery Ship, and Mike Hailwood’s Honda RC162. These are just some of the machines that have made motorcycle history, and that make this book a feast for the eyes and a fact-filled odyssey for the motorcycle aficionado. Illustrated with commissioned photographs and historical images, the book profiles the bikes--not just the models but the actual motorcycles--that have achieved legendary status in the last century. Their stories, told here in detail for the first time, make up the story of the motorcycle in American culture. See Motorbooks author Basem Wasef interviewed by Jay Leno on JayLenosGarage.com: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/jays-book-club-basem-wasef/1168295/