"Maurice Barrymore began life as Herbert Blyth, amid the jumbled bazaars and golden temples of East India. Sent to England for proper schooling, he was expelled from Harrow, quit Oxford, became Britain's middle-weight boxing champion, then turned to acting. When his hyper-Victorian family of civil servants, soldiers, and clergymen disowned him, he took the name "Barrymore," and sailed for America, where he married Georgie, the brilliant daughter of the theatrical Drews."--Publisher's description.
A “superb [and] often hilarious” memoir of a life in journalism, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Growing Up (The New York Times Book Review). “Baker here recalls his years at the Baltimore Sun, where, on ‘starvation wages,’ he worked on the police beat, as a rewrite man, feature writer and White House correspondent. Sent to London in 1953 to report on the coronation, he spent the happiest year of his life there as an innocent abroad. Moving to the New York Times and becoming a ‘two-fisted drinker,’ he covered the Senate and the national political campaigns of 1956 and 1960, and, just as he was becoming bored with routine reporting and the obligation to keep judgments out of his stories, was offered the opportunity to write his own op-ed page column, ‘The Observer.’ With its lively stories about journalists, Washington politicians and topical scandals, the book will delight Baker’s devotees—and significantly expand their already vast number.” —Publishers Weekly “Aspiring writers will chuckle over Baker’s first, horrible day on police beat, his panicked interview with Evelyn Waugh, and his arrival at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in top hat, tails, and brown-bag lunch.” —Library Journal “A wonderful book.” —Kirkus Reviews
Lee Bennet Hopkins, noted anthologist and educator, has collected a group of witty and whimsical poems that celebrate the joy of reading. Karla Kuskin, Jack Prelutsky, and Arnold Lobel are just a few of the acclaimed children's book authors whose poems are joined into this delightful ode to the world of words. Wonderfully wacky illustrations by Harvey Stevenson help make this a rollicking good book--and a rollicking good time.
LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2019 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ENCORE PRIZE 2020 Sammy and his three friends are country boys from Armagh, the disputed borderlands of a country cannbalising itself. They love sharp clothes, a drink, and a night on the town singing Perry Como's classics. Their dream is a Free State, and their methods for achieving this are uncompromising. Heading for Belfast - ground zero of the Troubles - they find themselves in the incongruous position of running a comic book shop by day. Their clandestine activities belong in the x-rated pages of graphic fiction: burglary, blackmail, extortion, torture, and murder. No criminal act is too taboo for these boys. But when punk rock arrives and the hard edge of the decade starts to reveal its true paranoid colours, Sammy finds himself increasingly isolated. Camaraderie and loyalty is the fuel of a terrorist cell. When those virtues prove faulty, the game is up - and Sammy's world starts to radically shrink. For the Good Times shouts and sings with visionary intensity and gallows humour. It is not just a book about the IRA, but an exploration of what it means to 'go rogue', and the heartbreak and devastation that commitment to 'the cause' can engender. It unpacks any dewy-eyed romance associated with the Troubles, and establishes David Keenan as one of our generation's most fearless and entertaining literary stylists.
Hallefrickinlujah, it’s here--your ultimate party-planning guide. Forget the stuffy dinner conversations. And the plates of cheese. And the wine (unless it’s boxed, or bottled three-buck Chuck). It’s time to tap into a powder keg of debauchery. Brought to you by Connor and Dominic, founders of The 5th Year and scholars in the art of the party, this book serves up dozens of out-of-the-box ideas, along with advice on throwing a successful shindig and plenty of suggestions on how to take the shenanigans to the next level. You’ll find ridiculously fun ways to get your drink on, like . . . Tour de Franzia: Spandex-clad partiers chant, ?Go, go, go? as their wine-mouthed friends race through boxes of the classy stuff. Brownbag Surprise: Guests have to MacGyver their own costumes out of whatever’s inside the brownbag they’re given. Fake Wake: It’s like a real Irish wake--except even the stiff’s drunk. Donkey Punch Dinner Party: Where placing your Cleveland Steamer Meatballs between a bowl of Dirty Sanchez Seven-Layer Dip and a tray of Dutch Oven Biscuits isn’t out of place. So ditch the popped-collar polos and wayfarers and move on from the played-out ’80s theme. It’s time to try something new. And as entertaining as it is instructive, this book is destined to become your gospel whenever you’re looking for a good time. The party’s on.
This autobiographical comic drama by a noted cartoonist about growing up in an interracial neighborhood in the 1960s enjoyed a long Off Broadway run. Twelve year old best friends, one black and one white, stand by each other through upheaval and tragedy, in spite of each families disapproval. However, racial peer pressure eventually drives a wedge between the girls. Interspersed are songs of the period, some heard on the Victrola and others perform by the spirited cast.
A unique, highly readable approach to the environmental crisis, with alternating chapters outlining the effects on society if left unchecked, and the radical actions we can take to prevent it Now includes updated sections on COVID-19 and COP26 The environmental emergency is the greatest threat we face. Preventing it will require an unprecedented political and social response. And yet, there is still hope. Academic, physicist, environmental expert and award-winning science communicator Paul Behrens presents a radical analysis of a civilization on the brink of catastrophe. Setting out the pressing existential threats we face, he writes, in alternating chapters, of what the future could look like at its most pessimistic and hopeful. In lucid prose, Behrens argues that structural problems need structural solutions, and examines critical areas in which political will is required, including women's education, food and energy security, biodiversity and economics. The book was printed with two different jackets, to illustrate the unique duality of the author's approach.
A record of his childhood, young adulthood, and twenties, The Best Times is a collage of cherished memories. He reflects on the joys of an itinerant life enriched by new and diverse friendships, customs, cultures, and cuisines. Luminary personalities and landscapes abound in the 1920s literary world Dos Passos loved. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, E.E. Cummings, Gerald and Sara Murphy, Horsley Gantt—they are his beloved friends. Spain, the French Riviera, Paris, Persia, the Caucasus—they are his beloved footpaths.
Following his New York Times bestselling classics comes this sparkling account of the joys of sharing the simple pleasures of life from Jimmy Carter. In this wonderfully evocative volume, Jimmy Carter writes about the things that matter most, the simple relaxed days and nights that he has enjoyed with family and friends through the years and across the generations. Here are lively, witty accounts of exploring the outdoors with his father and with black playmates; making furniture; painting; pursuing new adventures and going places with children, grandchildren, and friends; and sharing life with his wife, Rosalynn. Sharing Good Times is an inspirational guide for anyone desiring to stretch mind and heart and to combine work and pleasure.
