The era of popular music from about 1917 onward saw an explosion of creative songwriting that converged with a new sound from reed, brass, and rhythm instruments. Jazz was born, and the musical sophistication that accompanied this original sound set the stage for the prominence of arrangers, whose role in big band orchestrations became as important as jazz musicians and composers themselves. The Big Band evolved as a unique phenomenon in American music history. With both studio and live vintage recordings readily available, an investigation of how to listen and experience Big Band music is overdue. In Experiencing Big Band Jazz: A Listener’s Companion, composer/arranger, music historian, and music editor Jeff Sultanof takes a fresh look at Big Band music, examining why the Big Band era started when it did; how pop music changed to meet the needs of Big Bands and the reverse; the role played by well-known band leaders and the bands they led, the jazz soloists who became legendary, and the stories of several ensembles previously unexamined. Lists of must-hear recordings and videos drawn from studio as well as live sources are also included to make the book an invaluable resource for music lovers of every age.
The era of popular music from about 1917 onward saw an explosion of creative songwriting that converged with a new sound from reed, brass, and rhythm instruments. Jazz was born, and the musical sophistication that accompanied this original sound set the stage for the prominence of arrangers, whose role in big band orchestrations became as important as jazz musicians and composers themselves. The Big Band evolved as a unique phenomenon in American music history. With both studio and live vintage recordings readily available, an investigation of how to listen and experience Big Band music is overdue. In Experiencing Big Band Jazz: A Listener’s Companion, composer/arranger, music historian, and music editor Jeff Sultanof takes a fresh look at Big Band music, examining why the Big Band era started when it did; how pop music changed to meet the needs of Big Bands and the reverse; the role played by well-known band leaders and the bands they led, the jazz soloists who became legendary, and the stories of several ensembles previously unexamined. Lists of must-hear recordings and videos drawn from studio as well as live sources are also included to make the book an invaluable resource for music lovers of every age.
Eight short read-aloud plays with engaging activities that build reading skills, add spark to social studies lessons, and explore diverse cultures"--Cover
The Central Asian slave trade swept hundreds of thousands of Iranians, Russians, and others into slavery during the eighteenth–nineteenth centuries. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, autobiographies, and newly-uncovered interviews with slaves, this book offers an unprecedented window into slaves' lives and a penetrating examination of human trafficking. Slavery strained Central Asia's relations with Russia, England, and Iran, and would serve as a major justification for the Russian conquest of this region in the 1860s–70s. Challenging the consensus that the Russian Empire abolished slavery with these conquests, Eden uses these documents to reveal that it was the slaves themselves who brought about their own emancipation by fomenting the largest slave uprising in the region's history.
Machine Guns and Cricket Bats is a behind-the-scenes look into the sometimes dangerous and always entertaining world of international cricket. If you've ever wondered what destiny does when it's not arranging wars, scandals and marriages, ask author Jeff Grzinic. As a toddler in Western Australia, Jeff was involved in a serious car accident, and spent decades recovering from his injuries before becoming an international cricketer - for a country that didn't even exist when he was born! Jeff's story of the battles of attrition in life from behind the crease makes an enchanting and intriguing read for fans of life - not just cricket. Competing in a world of sub-elite international cricket, the rewards are somewhat esoteric and the experiences closer to the bone. His humour leads readers through the underbelly of European cricket, including the cheap motels, spectacular sights, memorable food, and most importantly, the people.
In the Zionist view of Israeli history, the Old Yishuv of Jerusalem - the Jewish community of the 19th and early 20th centuries - was "a lifeless body ruled by hypocrites, cheats and unschooled rabbis", and its importance was downplayed and ignored in this study of the Old Yishuv, Dr Halper uncovers the personalities, issues, and events that formed
Enchanting . . . An absorbing narrative of politics, ecology, and economics."--New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice) Located between the Great Rift Valley and the Nile, the cloud forests in southwestern Ethiopia are the original home of Arabica, the most prevalent and superior of the two main species of coffee being cultivated today. Virtually unknown to European explorers, the Kafa region was essentially off-limits to foreigners well into the twentieth century, which allowed the world's original coffee culture to develop in virtual isolation in the forests where the Kafa people continue to forage for wild coffee berries. Deftly blending in the long, fascinating history of our favorite drink, award-winning author Jeff Koehler takes readers from these forest beginnings along the spectacular journey of its spread around the globe. With cafés on virtually every corner of every town in the world, coffee has never been so popular--nor tasted so good. Yet diseases and climate change are battering production in Latin America, where 85 percent of Arabica grows. As the industry tries to safeguard the species' future, breeders are returning to the original coffee forests, which are under threat and swiftly shrinking. "The forests around Kafa are not important just because they are the origin of a drink that means so much to so many," writes Koehler. "They are important because deep in their shady understory lies a key to saving the faltering coffee industry. They hold not just the past but also the future of coffee." "A must-read for coffee enthusiasts."--Smithsonian (Best of the Year) "Reads like an engaging multimystery detective novel."--Wall Street Journal "Fascinating . . . How a local crop transformed into a global commodity."--Real Simple (Best of the Month) Coffee is one of the largest and most valuable commodities in the world. This is the story of its origins, its history, and the threat to its future, by the IACP Award–winning author of Darjeeling.
Two ex-Green Berets recount their missions after two decades in Special Forces, from running counter-terrorism training to rescuing kidnap victims & more. A lot of confusion, a lot of humor, a lot of broken dreams and broken promises, an occasional triumph . . . 1978—A chance meeting on a remote military airbase between two Green Berets involved in the same operation leads to a partnership that will last over forty years. Four years after that meeting, Nick Brokhausen and Jeff Miller leave the service within a few weeks of each other and begin an odyssey that takes them to dozens of countries on five continents. Along with a small coterie of fellow former Special Operations and intelligence community veterans like Penguini, Max, Reek, The Spider Woman, and a score of others—some heroes and some villains—they undertake a variety of missions for the government, other governments, large multinational corporations mostly in the aerospace or resource development industries, and occasionally just for suffering individuals who cannot find help anywhere else. In the process they lay the groundwork for an entire new industry of private military contractors. Two men sadly just a bit ahead of their time. Every episode in this book actually happened. Not always precisely as described herein, but close. Changes have been made sometimes to make the narrative flow more smoothly, some to obfuscate events that might be flirting with classification issues . . . Names have been changed, not always to protect the innocent. But the underlying story is, for the most part, the reality as they lived it. “A fascinating account of an extraordinary series of adventures.” —Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International
Twenty-eight Cattlemen tell their stories. If there is a life hereafter I imagine it to be something like this. There will be a big new saleyard in a lush green valley. Mick Moloney will have supplied the steel and supervised the construction. Luke Hopkins will be on the catwalk selling the cattle and Alan Bodman will be taking the bids. Wally Atkinson has drafted the cattle George Birch, Trevor Murray and myself will be leaning on the rails buying. Birchy will be buying for Cec Watts, I will be buying for Live Exports. Sid Parker and Tony Edwards will walk up behind me and tell me I am paying too bloody much for them. Bruce Paine will be on the job looking for cattle with diseases. Ian Knight will be off siding for him. Lyn Hayes and Ken Hammar will have worried looks on their faces because Jack Travers, Ian Michael and Peter McCracken the stock inspectors are checking brands and permits. Under a couple of shady trees not far away will be two droving plants. Bruce Simpson, Abe Teece and Bomber Stacey will be in one camp; George Fry, Bernie Jansen and Tiger Flohr will be in the other. Roger Steele will be horse tailing for both camps. Allan Simpson and Hank Sproules are knocking a few young horses into shape, out in the open. As the sun goes down John Gunn arrives in his road train looking for work. The drovers make a comment that road trains should never have been invented. Everyone calls it a day and heads for John and Wendy Ohlsen’s canteen to have a feed of rib-bones, have a few rums and reminisce about days gone by.
Darjeeling's tea bushes run across a mythical landscape steeped with the religious, the sacred, and the picturesque. Planted at high elevation in the heart of the Eastern Himalayas, in an area of northern India bound by Nepal to the west, Bhutan to the east, and Sikkim to the north, the linear rows of brilliant green, waist-high shrubs that coat the steep slopes and valleys around this Victorian “hill town” produce only a fraction of the world's tea, and less than one percent of India's total. Yet the tea from that limited crop, with its characteristic bright, amber-colored brew and muscatel flavors - delicate and flowery, hinting of apricots and peaches - is generally considered the best in the world. This is the story of how Darjeeling tea began, was key to the largest tea industry on the globe under Imperial British rule, and came to produce the highest-quality tea leaves anywhere in the world. It is a story rich in history, intrigue and empire, full of adventurers and unlikely successes in culture, mythology and religions, ecology and terroir, all set with a backdrop of the looming Himalayas and drenching monsoons. The story is ripe with the imprint of the Raj as well as the contemporary clout of “voodoo farmers” getting world record prices for their fine teas - and all of it beginning with one of the most audacious acts of corporate smuggling in history. But it is also the story of how the industry spiraled into decline by the end of the twentieth century, and how this edenic spot in the high Himalayas seethes with union unrest and a violent independence struggle. It is also a front-line fight against the devastating effects of climate change and decades of harming farming practices, a fight that is being fought in some tea gardens - and, astonishingly, won - using radical methods. Jeff Koehler has written a fascinating chronicle of India and its most sought-after tea. Blending history, politics, and reportage together, along with a collection of recipes that tea-drinkers will love, Darjeeling is an indispensable volume for fans of micro-history and tea fanatics.
Designing User Interfaces for an Aging Population: Towards Universal Design presents age-friendly design guidelines that are well-established, agreed-upon, research-based, actionable, and applicable across a variety of modern technology platforms. The book offers guidance for product engineers, designers, or students who want to produce technological products and online services that can be easily and successfully used by older adults and other populations. It presents typical age-related characteristics, addressing vision and visual design, hand-eye coordination and ergonomics, hearing and sound, speech and comprehension, navigation, focus, cognition, attention, learning, memory, content and writing, attitude and affect, and general accessibility. The authors explore characteristics of aging via realistic personas which demonstrate the impact of design decisions on actual users over age 55. Presents the characteristics of older adults that can hinder use of technology Provides guidelines for designing technology that can be used by older adults and younger people Review real-world examples of designs that implement the guidelines and the designs that violate them
“The West will begin to understand Africa when it realizes it’s not talking to a child—it’s talking to its mother.” So writes Jeff Pearce in the introduction to his fascinating, groundbreaking work, The Gifts of Africa: How a Continent and Its People Changed the World. We learn early on in school how Europe and Asia gave us important literature, science, and art, and how their nations changed the course of history. But what about Africa? There are plenty of books that detail its colonialism, corruption, famine, and war, but few that discuss the debt owed to African thinkers and innovators. In The Gifts of Africa, we meet Zera Yacob, an Ethiopian philosopher who developed the same critical approach and several of the same ideas as René Descartes. We consider how Somalis traded with China, and we meet the African warrior queens who still inspire national pride. We explore how Liberia’s Edward Wilmot Blyden deeply influenced Marcus Garvey, and we sneak into the galleries and theaters of 1920s Paris, where African art and dance first began to make huge impacts on the world. Relying on meticulous research, Pearce brings to life a rich intellectual legacy and profiles modern innovators like acclaimed griot Papa Susso and renowned economist George Ayittey from Ghana. From the ancient Nubians to a Nigerian superstar in modern painting and sculpture, from the father of sociology in the Maghreb to how the Mau Mau in Kenya influenced Malcom X, The Gifts of Africa is bold, engaging, and takes the reader on a journey of thousands of years up to the present day. Past works have reinforced misconceptions about Africa, from its oral traditions and languages to its resistance to colonial powers. Other books have treated African achievements as a parade of honorable mentions and novelties. This book is different—refreshingly different. It tells the stories behind the milestones and provides insights into how great Africans thought, and how they passed along what they learned. Provocative and entertaining, The Gifts of Africa at last gives the continent its due, and it should change the way we learn about the interactions of cultures and how we teach the history of the world.
Brand New Ballgame Discover what the pros know with this hands-on, how-to guide to picking baseball memorabilia. Learn what seasoned collectors look for and what they value in this easy-to-follow and indispensable pocket guide. You'll Uncover: • The Triple Play--Who, what, and how of baseball picking and collecting • Hot Prospects--Baseball cards, balls, bats, jerseys, pennants, photographs, board games, and more • Major League finds • How to Play Ball--Practical strategies for valuing and flipping items • The Sweet Spot--How to negotiate deals Whether for pleasure of profit, the Picker's Pocket Guide is a real find.
Audacious, weird, and icily ironic, Community was a kind of geek alt-comedy portal, packed with science fiction references, in-jokes that quickly metastasized into their own alternate universe, dark conspiracy-tinged humor, and a sharp yet loving deconstructions of the sitcom genre. At the same time, it also turned into a thoughtful and heartfelt rumination on loneliness, identity, and purpose. The story of Community is the story of the evolution of American comedy. Its creator, Dan Harmon, was an improv comic with a hyperbolically rapid-fire and angrily geeky style. After getting his shot with Community, Harmon poured everything he had into a visionary series about a group of mismatched friends finding solace in their community-college study group. Six Seasons and a Movie: How Community Broke Television is an episode-by-episode deep-dive that excavates a central cultural artifact: a six-season show that rewrote the rules for TV sitcoms and presaged the self-aware, metafictional sensibility so common now in the streaming universe. Pop culture experts Chris Barsanti, Jeff Massey, and Brian Cogan explore its influences and the long tail left by its creators and stars, including Donald Glover’s experiments in music (as rapper Childish Gambino) and TV drama (Atlanta); producers-directors Anthony and Joseph Russo’s emergence as pillars of the Marvel universe (Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War); and Harmon’s subsequent success with the anarchic sci-fi cartoon Rick and Morty. Covering everything from the corporate politics that Harmon and his team endured at NBC to the Easter eggs they embedded in countless episodes, Community: The Show that Broke Television is a rich and heartfelt look at a series that broke the mold of TV sitcoms.
Experts of varying caliber have attempted through the years to write the definitive work describing the “historical Jesus” to sort out what we can and cannot know for certain about Jesus of Nazareth. This is not one of those. Knowing is difficult and certitude is probably impossible. Instead, A Life Known and Unknown seeks to both know and unknow the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. It is an anachronistic romp through the Holy Land of the past and the science-fiction future. It is devout and sarcastic, humorous and devotional, and, in the end, faithful.
THE BIGGEST HEIST. THE MOST DANGEROUS ADVERSARY. FROM THE MASTER OF THE GENRE. OH, AND EXPLOSIONS. Impossible doesn’t belong in Riley Wolfe’s vocabulary. He’s a master of heists and disguises, whose life's work is swindling the rich out of their undeserved treasures. Now rumors surrounding a dangerous new figure of international crime are spreading through the underworld. And this ruthless collector, the Cobra, has a personal vendetta against Riley . . . No matter—with the aid of his new partner, Caitlin, Riley prepares to take on the most powerful cultural institution in the world and bring home the supposedly unstealable Rosetta Stone. With the Cobra waiting for the right moment to strike, Riley is put to the ultimate test as he faces this most venomous villain—and tries to make it out alive. Packed with Jeff Lindsay’s trademark style of intricately plotted twists, stunning global settings, and thrilling action, The Fourth Rule is a relentlessly suspenseful and delicious escapist thriller that will leave you shocked, breathless, and endlessly entertained.
The Centurion Principles approaches leadership in a fresh and compelling way for leaders at all levels of responsibility. Rather than long lists of principles and ideas with explanations, this book teaches leadership concepts through captivating models, revealing the "hows" and "whys" of leaders making decisions during their most difficult hours. This approach of placing readers in the shoes of decision makers provides a realistic and gripping application of leadership principles. The book is designed to motivate a reader into becoming the kind of leader that will leave a stirring legacy-a Centurion Leader. New York Times bestselling author Colonel Jeff O'Leary (ret.) illuminates the defining moments of great leaders, including Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, and Abraham Lincoln.
The ultimate book on the incredible, and complex history of opium throughout the world. Flowers in the Blood lifts the veil of mystery that has surrounded opium down through the ages. Inside, discover: Why a three-thousand-year-old statue of a Greek goddess was crowned with poppies The formulas for Hippocrates’s ancient opium remedies Why the Islamic councils of the wise vilified hashish but venerated opium What really provoked the Opium Wars in China Why John Jacob Astor quit the opium trade The unique role played by Chinese opium in the birth of the American labor movement Opium has played a dramatic and varied role in human history, inspiring religious veneration, scientific exploration, the bitterest rancor, and the most fanciful ecstasy. Now, authors Jeff Goldberg and Dean Latimer have provided a complete, insightful history of opium. Along the way, the authors provide details of the addictions of S. T. Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey, and other literary opium-eaters of the nineteenth century, as well as chronicling the progress of antidrug laws and the ongoing search for an addiction cure. Originally published in 1981, this edition of Flowers in the Blood has been updated with a new preface by Goldberg. At times disconcerting—raising serious questions about attitudes and approaches toward powerful drugs and their control—Flowers in the Blood is an essential addition to the literature of opium, and a wide-awake look at the stuff that dreams (and nightmares) are made of. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
No wonder Jeff Klinkenberg loves Florida. At any time of year he can find a place in the state that's ripe to enjoy or a person whose story has aged to perfection. Arranged by season, the book opens in the fall, which Klinkenberg says is like spring in the north--a time of celebration: "Having survived our harshest season, we feel renewed." Fair weather, good food, and the joys of nature lie ahead, described here in essays that are like time capsules of "old Florida values." Preserving the past, they reveal Klinkenberg's waggish appreciation of the state's history, folkways, and landscape, not to mention its barbequed ribs, smoked mullet, stone crab claws, and fresh lemonade. Many pieces focus off the beaten path and on modern rogues who seem to turn their backsides to the subdivisions and shopping malls that pave the state: Miss Ruby, whose fruit stand features rutabagas, boiled peanuts, and her own brightly colored plywood paintings; an 85-year-old resident of the remote island of Cayo Costa who hums Beethoven while she hunts for shells; the scientists who test mosquito repellent in Everglades National Park; and the unofficial caretaker of Lilly Spring on the Santa Fe River, who greets canoeists wearing glasses, a necklace, and on occasion a synthetic fur loincloth. Other pieces pay homage to Klinkenberg's literary heroes who've written in and about Florida, such as Pulitzer Prize-winner Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Rawlings's companion and memoirist Idella Parker, Everglades crusader Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and novelist Ernest Hemingway. Klinkenberg also revisits an old St. Johns River campsite of 19th-century botanist William Bartram, whose encounters with alligators there were as alarming as Klinkenberg's with beer cans and soda bottles. For anyone who has a stake in the real Florida--resident, tourist, naturalist, or newcomer--this tour of the seasons will linger in memory like the aroma of orange blossoms on a clear winter night.
From 1996 through 2004, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal combined-- and collided-- to help bring the Lakers three straight championships and restore the franchise as a powerhouse. From public sniping and sparring, to physical altercations and the repeated threats of trade, it was warfare. The eight years of infighting and hostility were by turns mediated and encouraged by coach Phil Jackson. Pearlman shows how the Shaq-Kobe duo resulted in one of the most enduring, and ever-evolving, teams in NBA history. -- adapted from jacket
`This exceptionally interesting study provides an up-to-date and integrated perspective on organizations, violence, gender and sexuality. It pays particular attention to the power wielded by hierarchies of heterosexual men, and the ways in which this produces violence in different, carefully analyzed forms. This book is a major contribution to the construction of sociological and political knowledge that is not founded on the dominant definitions of heterosexual masculinities′ - Professor Terrell Carver, University of Bristol `This is a wide-ranging and authoritative book. The authors draw attention to the huge amount of evidence now available that documents the gendering and sexualising processes at the core of organisational life. While they never nag about violation and inequality, they are nonetheless relentless in confronting the reader with the weight of evidence′- Professor Rosemary Pringle, University of Southampton This book brings together the themes of gender, sexuality, violence and organizations. The authors synthesize the literature and research which has been done in these fields and provide a coherent framework for understanding the interrelationship between these concepts. The importance of violence and abuse, and particularly men′s violence to women, children and other men has been well established, especially through feminist and some pro-feminist research. The insights of this scholarship have rarely been applied to organizational analysis. The authors draw on this literature and their own research, as well as relevant literatures on safety and risk at work; anxiety and stress at work; organizational policies on violence; sexual harassment and bullying in organizations; and male sexuality, to provide valuable information on violence in and around organizations. Gender, Sexuality and Violence in Organizations breaks new ground in organization studies and will be essential reading for academics and students in both organization studies and all those studying issues of gender and sexuality in organizations.
The global history of oil politics, from World War I to the present, can teach us much about world politics, climate change, and international order in the twenty-first century. When and why does international order change? The largest peaceful transfer of wealth across borders in all of human history began with the oil crisis of 1973. OPEC countries turned the tables on the most powerful businesses on the planet, quadrupling the price of oil and shifting the global distribution of profits. It represented a huge shift in international order. Yet, the textbook explanation for how world politics works-that the most powerful country sets up and sustains the rules of international order after winning a major war-doesn't fit these events, or plenty of others. Instead of thinking of "the" international order as a single thing, Jeff Colgan explains how it operates in parts, and often changes in peacetime. Partial Hegemony offers lessons for leaders and analysts seeking to design new international governing arrangements to manage an array of pressing concerns ranging from US-China rivalry to climate change, and from nuclear proliferation to peacekeeping. A major contribution to international relations theory, this book promises to reshape our understanding of the forces driving change in world politics.
Addressing its technical evolution as well as its military and social impact, this comprehensive reference shows how historic leaders such as Dionysus of Syracuse, the Ottoman sultan Mohammad II, Oliver Cromwell, and Napoleon Bonaparte were successful in battle because of their innovative use of artillery. Artillery: An Illustrated History of Its Impact charts the development of large, crew-operated battlefield weapons from the dart firers and catapults of the ancient world to the invention of gunpowder in China and its applications in medieval Europe, and from the emergence of naval and land gunnery four centuries ago to the latest rapid-fire, rocket propulsion, laser guidance, and antiaircraft technologies. Written by an expert on military history, Artillery explores the technological and strategic innovations that have made these weapons increasingly effective at breaking through fortifications, inflicting casualties from a safe distance, providing cover for advancing forces, demoralizing opponents, and defending positions from attack. Beyond the battlefield, the book also looks at the impact of artillery on history and on the lives of civilians as well as soldiers.
Bali and Balinese culture have become central to western imaginings of 'the east.' Along with its natural beauty and tropical sensuality, Bali's rich and complex culture has proved intensely alluring for western artists, scholars, and travelers. However, as this aesthetic imagining and desire for beauty have evolved into a mass tourism industry, the island people and their culture have experienced radical and rapid transformation. While many in the international community were stunned by the horror of the militant bombings in 2002 and 2005, these attacks were merely the apex of a profound and ongoing crisis which resonates through the period of Bali's modernization and engagement with the global economy of pleasure. Bali's Silent Crisis examines and elucidates the complex cultural and political environment of contemporary Bali. The book explains the conditions of crisis in Bali in terms of a powerful collision of cultural elements and trends, focusing specifically on the double matrix of 'desire' and 'violence' that has characterized Bali's recent past. Moving beyond a simple opposition between 'tradition' and 'the modern', this book reveals a society that is struggling to reconcile its own profound aesthetic and sense of historical identity with the intense agonisms that are generated through rapid social and cultural change. Through its thematic approach, Bali's Silent Crisis presents an image of community trauma, creative resilience and pluralization. The book records the challenges and horrors associated with transition, as well as the formidable beauty that remains intrinsic to the island's sense of cultural destiny.
Filled with biographical anecdotes, batting stats and historical comparisons, here is the one book young fans can use to become instant experts in baseball's great debate. Who is it: Babe Ruth? Ted Williams? Ty Cobb? Mark McGwire? or . . .? Here is your one-stop resource for answering the question all baseball fans ask: Who is the best batter ever? You'll find thirty-two of baseball's greatest hitters, with each player's batting statistics, special achievements and records, along with interesting anecdotes and photographs. With all this great information, Who Is Baseball's Greatest Hitter? is more than just a book of stats. Experienced sports writer Jeff Kisseloff gives young readers the tools to analyze, compare and contrast each player's career batting records. Unlike other baseball books, this one challenges the reader to make his own choices and add his own favorite batters to the debate. Can you match the question on the left with the player on the right? 1) Who hit 755 home Runs? A) Mark McGwire 2) Who hit .367 lifetime? B) Hank Aaron 3) Who has the best home run/at bat ratio? C) Ty Cobb And the big question, which statistic matters most? Who Is Baseball's Greatest Hitter? Answers: 1-B, 2-C, 3-A
Are you sitting comfortably? Then Jeff will begin ... The universally-loved, award-winning host of Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday and Channel 4's Countdown, and author of the bestselling Jelleyman's Thrown a Wobbly, returns with a Jackanory-style, football-flavoured narrative which gathers together the funniest, weirdest, most tragic, most heart-warming, under-the-radar stories of the football season. The book is stuffed to the gunnels with behind-the-scenes revelations, opinions and personal anecdotes from Jeff, and has a strong leaning towards the absurdities of both the highest levels and the grass-roots of the game. From the Macclesfield goalkeeper booked for using a golf tee to take his goal kicks, to the unintelligible ranting and raving of South American dictator chairmen. Let Jeff be your trusted guide through the madness of the football season, and let Jeffanory supply you with a veritable treasure trove of great anecdotes to take to the pub.
The story behind Major League Baseball’s two-way playing phenomenon and his rise from early days in Japan to his historic 2021 MVP season. Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels is playing baseball like no other major leaguer since Babe Ruth. His dominance as a two-way player—an electric pitcher and an elite slugger—made him the 2021 American League Most Valuable Player, the only player ever selected as an All Star as both a pitcher and hitter, and a member of Time 100’s most influential people of 2021. In Ohtani’s first two-way game of the 2021 season, he threw a pitch at 100 mph and hit a homer that left his bat at 115 mph, a confluence of feats unmatched by anyone else in the sport. He racked up eye-popping achievements all year. But awards and numbers tell only part of his amazing story. In Sho-Time, award-winning sportswriter Jeff Fletcher, who has covered Ohtani more than any other American journalist, charts Ohtani’s path through Japanese baseball to a championship with the Nippon-Ham Fighters, the recruiting war to bring him to the majors, his 2018 AL Rookie of the Year campaign, subsequent injury-riddled seasons, and then his historic 2021 season. Along the way, Fletcher weaves in the history of two-way players—including Babe Ruth and unsung Negro Leagues players like “Bullet” Joe Rogan, Martín Dihigo, and Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe—and the Japanese athletes who preceded Ohtani in the majors. With insight from Japanese and American baseball front office personnel, managers, scouts, athletic trainers, ballplayers, and more, Sho-Time breaks down the physics of Ohtani’s game, his technologically advanced training, his international fame, and the role he and teammate Mike Trout are playing to lead baseball into the next generation. Praise for Sho-Time “Jeff Fletcher masterfully chronicles not only what Ohtani accomplished in ‘21, but also provides the full context to his achievements. . . . Fletcher’s book is the definitive look at Ohtani’s two-way majesty.” —Ken Rosenthal, Senior Writer at The Athletic “Historians will be talking about Shohei Ohtani’s 2021 season for decades, and thankfully the baseball gods arranged for Jeff Fletcher to be there to cover baseball’s best two-way player ever in the midst of a pandemic, to bear witness and mine details and write with grace about the sport’s most incredible individual performance.” —Buster Olney, ESPN “The essential portrait of baseball’s most captivating player. . . . Fletcher goes beyond the carefully scripted press conferences, revealing in vivid detail the challenges and triumphs of a baseball journey like no other.” —Tyler Kepner, The New York Times
The quality education in modern world had becomes a main concern for any parents who want their child to excel in academic qualifications, in order to have a better future in their carrier, with better wages. The government in any country spends a great amount of fund in dealing with education, which is important in human capital development. Since educational literacy is relative to prosperous economic development for a country, no one can ignore its importance to the society. Some renowned international assessment such as OLIMPIAD, TOEFL, TIMSS, or PISA has being used to evaluate the students academic performance throughout the whole world. But, Malaysia, which is a modern nation, has to deal with a problem, where its assessment performance ranking had decline almost every year. Its assessment performance has nothing different with other third world countries such as African countries. The deteriorating of academic performance might causes by over intervention by political institutions and ineffectiveness of policy implementations. Should education over intervenes by politics, such as what happened at North Korea, Cuba and China? This kind of incident do happened in Malaysia, where the over intervenes by politics in education had causes the deteriorating of academic performance among Malaysian students.
Enamored by the western frontier, British immigrant Cashup Davis, his wife Mary Ann, and nine children became one of the first white families to settle on the Palouse’s spectacular rolling hills in eastern Washington Territory. Living at first in a simple sod house, they turn their bunchgrass acreage into a farm, befriend Native Americans during a war ignited by the U.S. government’s treaty violations, and eventually open an immensely popular and prosperous stagecoach stop. But Cashup has another dream: he is resolutely determined to build a grand luxury hotel on one of the region’s highest points, the summit of Steptoe Butte. People tell him it is a ridiculous idea, but Cashup never listens to the doubters. He’s brash, confident, and ever so charming. The story is told through the eyes of his great-grandson, Gordon Davis, who views Cashup as the "secret mentor" he never met. As Gordon has achieved success in his life and turned to philanthropy, he has sought to better understand his own good fortune by delving into his great-grandfather’s astonishing past. Cashup’s life prompts questions that are still relevant today: What is real success? Does it blind people to other joys in life? How should people balance risk and reward? Cashup’s hotel opened on July 4, 1888, and he became one of Washington’s first national celebrities. But no one--especially Gordon--expected what happened next.
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