The Ballad Of Dingus Magee


David Markson - 1965
    The Ballad of Dingus Magee Was the basis for a 1970 movie starring Frank Sinatra."A bawdy, gaudy charade...There is even a parallel to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza...splendidly convoluted". -- Charles PooreThe New York Times

World of Strange Phenomena


Charles Berlitz - 1985
    Inside this book are hundreds of strange occurrences, modern-day miracles, and puzzling facts brought together in a single volume by Charles Berlitz, author of the bestselling THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE. Inside you'll find the great mysteries of our time--documented incidents that no scientist or skeptic can explain away....

The Right Sort


David Mitchell - 2014
    He likes Valium because it reduces the bruising hurly-burly of the world into orderly, bite-sized 'pulses'. So the boy is essentially thinking and experiencing in Tweets," said Mitchell. "My hope is then that the rationale for deploying Twitter comes from inside the story, rather than it being imposed by me, from outside, as a gimmick. Usefully, the Valium also lets me walk that 'Turn of the Screw' tightrope between the fabulous and realism: maybe the supernatural events are really happening, or maybe they're just chemical phantasms.http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014...

Daddy's Boy: A Son's Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father


Chris Elliott - 1989
    

The Churchill Complex: The Curse of Being Special, from Winston and FDR to Trump and Brexit


Ian Buruma - 2020
    FDR of course had Winston Churchill; JFK had Harold Macmillan, his consigliere during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ronald Reagan found his ideological soul mate in Margaret Thatcher; and George W. Bush found his fellow believer, in religion and in war, in Tony Blair. Today, the bond between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson illuminates the populist uprisings in both countries, as well as a new kind of Special Relationship that goes against everything it once stood for.Remembering the past, even its most glorious moments, can be as misleading as forgetting it. Over and over, in the name of freedom and democracy, British and especially American leaders have evoked Winston Churchill as a model for brave leadership (and Nevillle Chamberlain to represent craven weakness). As Ian Buruma shows, in his dazzling, short tour de force of storytelling and analysis, the myths of World War II too often resulted in bad policies and foolish wars.But The Churchill Complex is much more than a reflection on the weight of Churchill's legacy and its misuses. At its heart are shrewd and absorbing character studies of the president-prime minster dyads, which in Ian Buruma's gifted hands serve as a master class in politics, diplomacy, and the personal quirks of our leaders. It has never been a relationship of equals: from Churchill's desperate cajoling and conniving to keep FDR on his side in World War II, British prime ministers have put much more stock in the relationship than their US counterparts. After the loss of its once-great empire, Britain clung to the world's greatest superpower as a path to continued relevance and leverage. As Buruma shows, this was almost always fool's gold, and now, the alliance has floundered on the rocks of isolationism. The Churchill Complex may not have a happy ending, but as with Ian Buruma's other works, piercing lucidity is its own lasting comfort.

You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up


Eric Knight - 1938
    When Dick commits one crime and plans another, the police arrest him for a crime he actually did not commit. Dick attempts to reconcile with his family and find his way out of LA’s seedy underworld. You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up was a bestseller when originally published in 1938 and is a noir classic.

Alexander Hamilton: A Biography


Forrest McDonald - 1979
    Had they known what a fickle muse Clio would prove to be, they might have been more anxious. The making of myths and legends, complete with a hagiology and demonology, is inherent in the process of evolution toward nationhood. Consequently, individual actors in the original drama have often been consigned by History to roles they did not actually play, and the most important of them have played shifting roles, being heroes in one generation and villains in the next. It is therefore not surprising that Alexander Hamilton—along with Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison—has had his ups and downs at the hands of historians.

How to Be Miserable in Your Twenties: 40 Strategies to Fail at Adulting


Randy J. Paterson - 2020
    Paterson uses his trademark wit and irony to help you tackle the most common roadblocks that stand in the way of successful “adulting.” Are you living in your parent’s basement? Can you measure your life by the hours you spend video streaming or gaming? Do you have absolutely no idea who you really are or what matters to you? Are you emotionally stunted and incapable of mature relationships? Great! Keep it up. If you just can’t get enough of being miserable, you’re on the right path. In How to Be Miserable in Your Twenties, you won’t find platitudes or promises of love, happiness, and a fabulous life. What you will find are 40 strategies to help you cultivate a life of abject misery. On the other hand, if you want to take control of your destiny, find meaning and a sense of purpose, or just be a damn grownup, feel free to do the opposite of what this book says. You may yet join the ranks of happy people everywhere! So, keep getting caught in the same self-defeating traps that have led you to an unfulfilling existence—or not! Either way, this book will help you take a good long look at yourself and your life, and come up with a solid action plan for your worst (or best) future.

Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929


Maury Klein - 2001
    The book offers a vibrant picture of a world full of plungers, powerful bankers, corporate titans, millionaire brokers, and buoyantly optimistic stock market bulls. We meet Sunshine Charley Mitchell, head of the National City Bank, powerful financiers Jack Morgan and Jacob Schiff, Wall Street manipulators such as the legendary Jesse Livermore, and the lavish-living Billy Durant, founder of General Motors. As Klein follows the careers of these men, he shows us how the financial house of cards gradually grew taller, as the irrational exuberance of an earlier age gripped America and convinced us that the market would continue to rise forever. Then, in October 1929, came a perfect storm-like convergence of factors that shook Wall Street to its foundations. We relive Black Thursday, when police lined Wall Street, brokers grew hysterical, customers bellowed like lunatics, and the ticker tape fell hours behind.This compelling history of the Crash--the first to follow the market closely for the two years leading up to the disaster--illuminates a major turning point in our history.

The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis


Ira Shapiro - 2012
    Senate an empty chamber; politicians have lamented that the institution is broken--yet the Senate was once capable of greatness. Senators of the 1960s and '70s overcame southern opposition to civil rights, passed Great Society legislation, and battled the executive branch on Vietnam, Watergate, and its abuses of power. The right's sweep of the 1980 elections shattered that Senate, leaving a diminished institution in its wake. Ira Shapiro spent 12 years working for Senators Gaylord Nelson, Abraham Ribicoff, Thomas Eagleton, Robert Byrd, and Jay Rockefeller. The Last Great Senate is his vivid portrait of the statesmen who helped steer America during the crisis years of the late 1970s, transcending partisanship and overcoming procedural roadblocks that have all but strangled the Senate since their departure. The Last Great Senate is necessary reading for all those who wonder how the Senate used to work and what happened to the world's greatest deliberative body.

Monstrosity


Edward Lee - 2002
    Clare Prentiss thinks her new home is paradise, and her brand-new job as security chief at the clinic almost seems too good to be true. It is. But the truth is worse than she could ever imagine.Lurid dreams, erotic obsessions, and twisted fantasies aren't the only things that abruptly invade Clare's life. Is someone really peeping into her windows at night? Yes. Could those grotesque things in the woods possibly be real? Yes. Is Clare being stalked? Yes. But not by anything human. By a monstrosity.

The Lion of Comarre


Arthur C. Clarke - 1949
    

The Big Activity Book for Anxious People


Jordan Reid - 2019
    Part journal, part coloring book, part weird coping mechanisms, and part compendium of soothing facts, The Big Activity Book for Anxious People will be an outlet for anyone who wants to take a break from reality, laugh through her fears, and realize with every page that she is not alone--and to help her figure out what to do when it's 3AM and she's wide awake worrying about whether she cc'ed the right "Bob" on that email. (Probably.)Activities include: - Fun Facts about Aging! - Public Speaking: A Diagram - Your Hotel Room Carpet: A Petri Dish of Horrors - Obscure Diseases You Probably Don't Have - Zen Mantras For The Anxiously Inclined - Soothing Facts about Hand SanitizerOn a bad day, try coloring in the soothing grandma. On a really bad day, find step-by-step instructions on how to build an underground bunker. Reid and Williams want everyone to remember that they're in good company: anxious people are some of the funniest and most interesting and creative humans on the planet. (They know, because they are two of them.)

The Family You've Always Wanted: Five Ways You Can Make It Happen


Gary Chapman - 2008
    He details five timeless characteristics that create a healthy family environment:A heart for serviceHusbands and wives who relate intimatelyParents who guide their childrenChildren who obey and honor their parentsHusbands who love and leadIn Dr. Chapman's own words, "What happens to your family does make a difference not only to you and your children, but to the thousands of young observers who are in search of a functional family."This book is not merely for reading, but for living. Experience God's design for family.

The Original Illustrated Mark Twain


Mark Twain - 1979
    With over 450 original illustrations, the wonderful collection of Twain's classics includes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Prince and the Pauper, plus 29 short stories.