It's interesting that you put me in the league with those illustrious fighters [Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Jack Johnson], but I've proved since my career I've surpassed them as far as my popularity. I'm the biggest fighter in the history of the sport. If you don't believe it, check the cash register' - Mike Tyson Mike Tyson is one of the most famous and controversial sportsmen in history. Despised and adored, he has been world heavyweight champion, armchair philosopher and convicted rapist. In Facing Tyson, sportswriter Ted A. Kluck finds out what it was like to step into the ring with Iron Mike. Through a series of compelling interviews with the man himself and with opponents including Lennox Lewis, Kevin McBride and Evander Holyfield, he conveys the reality of coming face to face with the 'Baddest Man on the Planet'.
There is perhaps no feeling lonelier than that of being a stranger in a strange land -- an experience many adoptive parents know well. Touching down in a crowded airport, with tens of thousands of dollars in cash strapped around your waist, to pay people you’ve never met for a baby you’ve never seen . . . . You might have prayed for months, even years, about that moment, but it still often feels like the foreign country is a region God has forgotten, and that He has sent you there in vain. For the young Christian couple, perhaps the only feeling more paralyzing and lonely than the one I’ve described is that of infertility. There are pregnancy announcements nearly every week in the church bulletin, and not wanting to “rain on your friends’ parade,” you suffer and grieve together in silence. This is the story of two international adoptions, complete with piles of cash, passport checks, airport con-men, electrocution, and Ukrainian cops on our doorstep with guns. It’s all part of the wild ride that is international adoption. But so is God’s faithfulness taking new forms each day through the love of friends, the support of family, the comfort of Scripture, and the fellowship of a new church family in a foreign land. And so is the joy of meeting two boys who will soon become part of your family -- the sensation of walking down narrow hallways through dark orphanages to say “hello” to your children for the first time. ss. We hope that you’ll read them and not only be entertained, but be motivated to think of Christ and our adoption as His sons and daughters. It is only the love of Christ, and our hope in Him, that got us through the first, the most difficult adoption in the history of our agency’s work with Ukraine, then infertility, and finally a second adoption. And it was these adoptions, more than any other events or events in our lives, that truly taught us to find our peace, comfort, and identity in Christ.
Can Flex Deal with the Drama? Flex is a football player, not an actor. But he can fake it if it means getting to see KK, the girl he’s dating (sort of—it’s complicated), every day after school for about a month. This play isn’t for the weak, though. First, Flex has to deal with his nemesis, Actor Boy, the guy who greets girls with kisses on either cheek. C’mon, dude. Really?!? Then there’s the whole Shakespeare thing. What was “Bill” thinking when he wrote this gobbledygook? Thou dost protest…seriously. Meanwhile KK is hanging out with Watson, the King of the Youth Group, and no amount of video game playing is going to make Flex feel okay about that. He’d better get his jealousy in check before KK checks out on him for good. But with some encouragement from Mimi and Pops (his mom and dad), a little advice from an unlikely ally, and a whole lot of truth from God’s awesome book, Flex might just turn his fear of failure into a performance befitting of the bard himself. Or at the very least, get KK to return his texts.
Is it sport or is it entertainment? As presented by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., the most well-known promoter of professional wrestling, it is hard for the uninitiated to tell. A refuge for the very athletic, and often a breeding ground for the highly dysfunctional, professional wrestling is, in the truest sense, life on the fringes. Headlocks and Dropkicks: A Butt-Kicking Ride through the World of Professional Wrestling chronicles sportswriter Ted A. Kluck's effort to become a professional wrestler at a popular wrestling school in the suburbs of Chicago. In training to become a wrestler, Kluck was able to delve into the traveling-circus elements of the sport and talk to the people who make it work—promoters, bookers, and the wrestlers themselves. Wrestling has weathered manifold changes in American taste to survive and thrive as it does today. Kluck examines the tension between the good vs. evil tales that permeated wrestling in the early to mid 1980s, along with the seamy soap opera storylines that seem to drive it today. He also takes time to catch up with the biggest stars the sport has produced—some of whom have parlayed their fame into financial security and others who are currently looking to reclaim their past glory.
Facing Tyson gives a ringside view of the world's most dangerous and notorious boxer. Brutal, controversial, and always newsworthy both inside and outside the ring, Mike Tyson remains a cultural icon to this day. Despite the personal, legal, and mental problems that have overshadowed his celebrated boxing career, he continues to make headlines as a fascinating, yet extremely flawed character. Several of the era's biggest names in boxing, including Pinklon Thomas, Tyrell Biggs, Evander Holyfield, and Lennox Lewis were interviewed by author Ted A. Kluck specifically for Facing Tyson. Each opponent gives his account of what it was like to face the most feared and loathed boxer at different stages of his career. .
Join Flex on His Quest to Be Cool Like most middle schoolers, Flex's mind is on a million different things—school, sports, friends, girls (of course), and yeah, he's thinking about God too. More than any of these thoughts, Flex is obsessed with one thing—being cool. But how can Flex attain awesomeness when he's so amazingly average at, well...EVERYTHING?!? Football could be his ticket out of seventh-grade obscurity, but then Coach sticks him with a boring jersey number and reassigns him to the most unglamorous position on the entire team. His parents aren't helping, either. They won't even let him bring his iPod to school like the other kids do. At least, his parents love him and love the Lord. That's HUGE. And just when Flex thinks life couldn't any more complicated, he finds himself suddenly drawn to KK, the mysterious drama girl. She's homeschooled and in ninth grade. KK is totally different...and a little exciting. Will Flex ever be considered cool? In God's eyes, maybe he already is.
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