The amazing and dramatic story of Bill Lester, one of the most well-known NASCAR drivers in history—and a pioneer whose determination and spirit has paved the way for a new generation of racers. Winning in Reverse tells the story of Bill Lester whose love for racing eventually compelled him to quit his job as an engineer to pursue racing full time. Blessed with natural talent, Bill still had a trifecta of odds against him: he was black, he was middle aged, and he wasn’t a southerner. Bill Lester rose above it all, as did his rankings, and he made history time and time again, becoming the first African American to race in NASCAR’s Busch Series, the first to participate in the Nextel Cup and the first to win a Pole Position start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Whether you are contemplating a career or lifestyle change, challenging social norms, or struggling against prejudice or bigotry, Winning in Reverse is a story for sports fans and readers everywhere about the power of perseverance in the face of adversity.
The amusing pieces in "Bill Nye's Sparks" were penned by Edgar Wilson Nye, writing under the pen name Bill Nye. Renowned American humourist and journalist Bill Nye was well-known for his sharp mind and caustic viewpoint on a wide range of topics. Readers can anticipate several amusing observations and commentary on society, daily life, and human behavior in "Bill Nye's Sparks." To keep his audience entertained, Nye uses a unique comedic style that combines wordplay and satire. The pieces offer a light-hearted look at the peculiarities and eccentricities of late 19th-century American culture on a variety of subjects. Although the essays' exact subjects may differ, readers can always count on Nye's distinctive humour and his ability to make the mundane hilarious. The word "Sparks" in the title can imply that Nye's works are humorous or insightful sparks that cause others to laugh and think. All things considered, the book is a charming illustration of American humour from the 19th century and the caustic approach that made Bill Nye famous.
In this thought-provoking alternative view of history, Bill Gutman spins out the maybes and what ifs that might have followed if some of the most iconic sports moments of all time had gone another way. He imagines a world in which Lombardi returns a hero to take the helm of the New York Giants, resulting in a Packers team that never achieves dynasty status and a Giants team that stumbles to glory late in the decade, a world where Muhammad Ali can't struggle to his feet after a huge blow from Liston and winds up a floundering middle-weight who never makes it big, and yes, a world where Babe Ruth never dons Yankee pinstripes but stays in Boston and out of the record books. With a careful eye for detail and a handful of bold predictions, Gutman attacks the sports history books with gusto, outlining an alternate reality that will change the way fans look at sports forever.
In Avant Rock,, music writer Bill Martin explores how avant-garde rock emerged from the social and political upheaval of the sixties. He covers the music from its early stages, revealing its influences outside of rock, from musicians such as John Cage and Cecil Taylor, to those more closely related to rock like James Brown and Parliament/ Funkadelic. Martin follows the development of avant rock through the sixties, when it was accepted into the mainstream, with bands like the later Beatles, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, King Crimson, and Brian Eno. His narration takes us into the present, with an analysis of contemporary artists who continue to innovate and push the boundaries of rock, such as Stereolab, Mouse on Mars, Sonic Youth, and Jim O'Rourke. Martin critiques the work of all important avant rock bands and individual artists, from the well-known to the more obscure, and provides an annotated discography
Breaking through pervasive misconceptions, Jazz in the 1970s explores a pivotal decade in jazz history. Many consider the 1970s to be the fusion decade, but Bill Shoemaker pushes back against this stereotype with a bold perspective that examines both the diverse musical innovations and cultural developments that elevated jazz internationally. He traces events that redefined jazz’s role in the broadband arts movement as well as the changing social and political landscape. Shoemaker immerses readers in the cultural transformation of jazz through: official recognition with events like Jimmy Carter’s White House Jazz Picnic and the release of The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz; the market validation of avant-garde musicians by major record labels and the concurrent spike in artist-operated record labels and performance spaces; the artistic influence and economic impact of jazz festivals internationally; the emergence of government and foundation grant support for jazz in the United States and Europe; and the role of media in articulating a fast-changing scene. Shoemaker details the lives and work of well-known innovators (such as Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers) as well as barrier-breaking artists based in Europe (such as Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann and Chris McGregor) giving both longtime fans and newcomers insights into the moments and personae that shaped a vibrant decade in jazz.
1954: Perhaps no single baseball season has so profoundly changed the game forever. In that year—the same in which the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, that segregation of the races be outlawed in America's public schools—Larry Doby's Indians won an American League record 111 games, dethroned the five-straight World Series champion Yankees, and went on to play Willie Mays's Giants in the first World Series that featured players of color on both teams. Seven years after Jackie Robinson had broken the baseball color line, 1954 was a triumphant watershed season for black players—and, in a larger sense, for baseball and the country as a whole. While Doby was the dominant player in the American League, Mays emerged as the preeminent player in the National League, with a flair and boyish innocence that all fans, black and white, quickly came to embrace. Mays was almost instantly beloved in 1954, much of that due to how seemingly easy it was for him to live up to the effusive buildup from his Giants manager, Leo Durocher, a man more widely known for his ferocious "nice guys finish last" attitude. Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Bill Madden delivers the first major book to fully examine the 1954 baseball season, drawn largely from exclusive recent interviews with the major players themselves, including Mays and Doby as well as New York baseball legends from that era: Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford of the Yankees, Monte Irvin of the Giants, and Carl Erskine of the Dodgers. 1954 transports readers across the baseball landscape of the time—from the spring training camps in Florida and Arizona to baseball cities including New York, Baltimore, Chicago, and Cleveland—as future superstars such as Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and others entered the leagues and continued to integrate the sport. Weaving together the narrative of one of baseball's greatest seasons with the racially charged events of that year, 1954 demonstrates how our national pastime—with the notable exception of the Yankees, who represented "white supremacy" in the game—was actually ahead of the curve in terms of the acceptance of black Americans, while the nation at large continued to struggle with tolerance.
Desperate to change his life and make a fresh start, Matthew Cape is enjoying his new Corvette, skydiving, and gambling, until he meets grifters Boone and Tanya Judson, who try to cheat him in a crooked San Francisco poker game.
Trying to decide what you're going to do for the rest of your life is not an easy decision to make. But this is the quandry that Hank Stuart finds himself in. Motivated by 'do-gooder' tendencies, Hank who comes with an agricultural and ranching background, is concerned whether or not the world will be able feed itself over the next 30 - 40 years. With this motivation and these concerns Hank decides to leave his beloved family ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska to search for answers and his individual purpose in life. Initially his departure leads him to Arizona State University with a goal in obtaining a Master's Degree in International Agriculture. Following graduation he departs for Central and South America visiting farms and ranches as well as meeting people from all sorts of various backgrounds. Two years later while living on a ranch in Paraguay, Hank is confronted by a decision where he must decide his purpose as it relates to the future of his family and ranch in Nebraska and to the agricultural dilemma confronting the world and the process of feeding the people of the world.
Some Wild Things is a fictional fast-moving humorous adult story based on the premise that there is no such thing as coincidencewhatever happens in life is ultimately meant to be. It addresses dramatic events, at times horrific, that take place when cross sections of people from different walks of life become entwined in a net of circumstance and chaos beyond their control. This culminates in a web of intrigue played out against an expeditious backdrop of romance, violence, incest, and murder. The protagonists are a sordid, interbred trailer park family that ruthlessly blazes a trail of cold-blooded havoc across an arid and hostile mineral-rich desert region that is plagued by incessant sandstorms and is home to a population of lethal Egyptian cobras. It is a story of double-dealing mining corruption, where an opposing mining conglomerate is on a ruthless mission to control and, if necessary, destroy their opposition. This leads to a terrifying web of bizarre ongoing pandemonium that involves assassination, gold bullion heists, and international drug syndicates under the guise of touring magicians. This lethal, somewhat humorous family spearheads the high-speed action and never-ending mayhem throughout the story, concluding with a double-dealing rip-off by entrepreneurial Somali pirates raising finance for their cause. Some Wild Things is dramatic, fast, and funny, with a sprinkling of brutal insanity that endorses once again the premise that there is no such thing as coincidence. Think Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and Two Smoking Barrels and youve got Some Wild Things.
Irish literature in English commands world-wide respect, but it is rarely discussed in a comparative light. This study of the making and unmaking of character commences with Balzac's impact on nineteenth-century Irish fiction. Sheridan Le Fanu links Balzac and Swedenborg to Yeats, and anticipates Elizabeth Bowen's deployment of ghost story conventions in the 1940s. Through painterly imagery, biblical quotation and the distortion of proper names, Le Fanu shows character to be a self-consuming project. Yeats's Parnell emerges as a modernist gothic hero of the 1930s. Bowen's The heat of the day anatomises the problems of identity, bequeathed by Yeats. Radically revising the idea of a gothic tradition and traversing two centuries of Irish literary history, Dissolute characters gives a fluent and detailed account of the emerging relation between Irish culture, modernism and politics.
William Blair was a standout in the Negro Baseball Leagues. But his greater contributions have been made as a newspaper publisher, businessman and political kingmaker in the Dallas community. Among his accomplishment was the creating of the largest Martin Luther King Jr. parade in the entire country. He began the event with less than 100 people. Now it attracts a crowd of more than 250,000 each year. It is the largest such tribute to Dr. King in the entire country. Politicians of all colors and backgrounds still seek out William Blair for his advice concerning their attempts for elected office. His closest relationships are with members of the faith community that have made the newspaper he founded, The Elite News, one of the most respected in the entire Southwestern United States.
The 1970s were both successful and tragic for the Pittsburgh Pirates. They won five NL Eastern Division crowns and the 1971 World Championship, but lost the great Roberto Clemente in a plane crash and pitcher Bob Moose in a car accident during this time. By the end of the 1970s, the Pirates were a good team but no longer considered favorites to win a World Series. Thanks to a fantastic finish in 1978, the Pittsburghers gained new hope for the 1979 season. As intriguing as the season was, it wasn't until the evening of August 25th that the Pirate fans really started to believe "it" could happen. The history of that magical ball club is covered here, from how the 1979 world champion team was built, to a thorough look at the season and post season, to how "The Family" finally fell. Also included are biographical sketches of all players who appeared on the team's roster that year and a section of complete statistics.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money? Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world. Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else. The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic. Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms.
A truly alternative look at music lists, not one that merely includes the obvious but shows the connections of popular music to the avant garde, the obscure, the experimental, the quirky, and the adventurous, this edition leads the curious reader towards new musical experiences hitherto unknown to them.
In the 1970s, after a decade of stagnant fan interest that seemed to signal the demise of Major League Baseball, the game saw growth and change. In 1972, the players became the first in professional sports to go on strike. Four years later, contractual changes allowed those with six years in the majors to become free agents, leading to an unprecedented increase in salaries. Developments in the play of the game included new ballparks with faster fields and artificial turf, and the introduction of the designated hitter in 1973. Eminent personalities emerged from the dugout, including many African Americans and Latinos. Focusing on the stars who debuted from 1970 through 1979, this book covers the highs and lows of more than 1,300 players who gave fans the most exciting decade baseball has ever seen.
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After two decades as a TV weatherman, Stanley Waters quits to open a bed-and-breakfast in Virginia, only to have the opening night spoiled by a murder. An opportunity for Stanley to do some sleuthing with a lady police chief on whom he has an eye.
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Despite the pressures of racism and a troubled personal life, Jimmy "The Toy Cannon" Wynn achieved remarkable success as a major league player. In a career that stretched from 1963 to 1977, he slugged 291 home runs, 223 of them in Houston ballparks (Colt Stadium, the Astrodome) notoriously unfriendly to power hitters. A strong-armed, speedy outfielder, Wynn was also adept at getting on base (seven times in the top 10 for on-base percentage) and then swiping a bag (225 career steals). This memoir recounts his triumphs and struggles in detail.
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