Writing in the intensely lyrical prose style that is his trademark, the man, Jean Cocteau, dubbed France's "Black Prince of Letters" here reconstructs his early adult years - time he spent as a petty criminal and vagabond, traveling through Spain and Antwerp, occasionally border hopping across to the rest of Europe, always trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities.

    Preston Wildey-King, 14, lives in Malibu with his widowed mother and sister. He is literally addicted to Pepsi, to the point that all his thoughts and fantasies are focused on it. When he's not drinking it he's dreaming about it, even creating art and poetry based on it. It amounts to his religion (Preston could have written "Breathtaking Design Strategy", the 2009 corporate document elevating Pepsi and its logo to metaphysical glory). He is deeply in love with Peggy, but she dumps him after an argument over his Pepsi habit. His friend Ryan is bisexual and desires him. His math tutor seduces him, and when he's sent to juvie after robbing a convenience store (mesmerized by a crate of Pepsi, of course, he sits down and drinks some instead of running) he's molested by a guard. Preston's choices and misfortunes are chronicled with that distinctive Gibbons flair, full of elegant metaphors, quirky slang and over- and undercurrents of emotion that take on a life of their own. Good luck finding it. Only five libraries are known to have it, but apparently bootleg copies exist.

    Totally natural, all-purpose, free, it offers limitless opportunities for outdoor play and adventure and it provides a starting point for an active imagination and the raw material for transformation into - almost anything! As New York's Strong National Museum of Play pointd out when they selected a stick for inclusion in their National Toy Hall of Fame, 'It can be a Wild West horse, a medieval knight's sword, a boat on a stream, or a slingshot with a rubber band . . .' In this book Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield offer masses of suggestions for things to do with a stick, in the way of adventures and bushcraft, creative and imaginative play, games, woodcraft and conservation, music and more.

    A new volume of poems by the award-winning author of October Palace.

    From the physics of energy to climate change, and from spy technology to quantum computers, this is the only textbook to focus on the modern physics affecting the decisions of political leaders and CEOs and, consequently, the lives of every citizen. How practical are alternative energy sources? Can satellites really read license plates from space? What is the quantum physics behind iPods and supermarket scanners? And how much should we fear a terrorist nuke? This lively book empowers students possessing any level of scientific background with the tools they need to make informed decisions and to argue their views persuasively with anyone--expert or otherwise.Based on Richard Muller's renowned course at Berkeley, the book explores critical physics topics: energy and power, atoms and heat, gravity and space, nuclei and radioactivity, chain reactions and atomic bombs, electricity and magnetism, waves, light, invisible light, climate change, quantum physics, and relativity. Muller engages readers through many intriguing examples, helpful facts to remember, a fun-to-read text, and an emphasis on real-world problems rather than mathematical computation. He includes chapter summaries, essay and discussion questions, Internet research topics, and handy tips for instructors to make the classroom experience more rewarding.Accessible and entertaining, "Physics and Technology for Future Presidents" gives students the scientific fluency they need to become well-rounded leaders in a world driven by science and technology.Professors: A supplementary Instructor's Manual is available for this book. It is restricted to teachers using the text in courses. For information on how to obtain a copy, refer to: http: //press.princeton.edu/class_use/solutio...

    Taking genre fiction for a ride, Slow Death uses obscenity, black humor and repetition for the sake of ironic deconstruction. The sleazy sex is always pornographic, and all traditional notions of literary taste and depth are ditched in favor of a transgressive aesthetic inspired by writers as diverse as Home, de Sade, Klaus Theweleit, and 70s cult writer Richard Allen.

    The critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition continues with another stunning collection, including stories by M. T. Anderson, Laird Barron, Simon Bestwick, Simon Brown, Stepan Chapman, Douglas Clegg, D. Ellis Dickerson, Terry Dowling, Andy Duncan, Jean Esteve, John Farris, Mélanie Fazi, Jeffrey Ford, Christopher Fowler, Stephen Gallagher, Theodora Goss, Elizabeth Hand, Alice Hoffman, Shelley Jackson, John Kessel, Margo Lanagan, Tanith Lee, Bentley Little, Elizabeth A. Lynn, Gregory Maguire, China Miéville, Richard Mueller, Joyce Carol Oates, Frances Oliver, Chuck Palahniuk, Tina Rath, Philip Raines and Harvey Welles, M. Rickert, Anna Ross, Alison Smith, R.T. Smith, Peter Straub, Lucy Sussex, Catherynne M. Valente, Greg Van Eekhout, and Conrad Williams. Rounding out the volume are the editors’ invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, and sections on comics, by Charles Vess, on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge, on media, by Ed Bryant, and on music, by Charles de Lint. With a long list of Honorable Mentions, this is an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.

    The brief volume of the first 37 chapters focuses on Western (or Classical) music, which includes the first 6 parts of LISTENING TO MUSIC, 5th Edition, and omits all end-of-chapter "Cultural Context" boxes.

    Updike, when asked to described his method of reading aloud, said "I try to picture the things describes, and to speak the words distinctly, and to let the emotion come through on its own."The method works beautifully.

    I Would Have Saved Them If I Could was his second collection of short stories, originally published in 1975."Leonard Michaels's stories stand alongside those of his best Jewish contemporaries - Grace Paley and Philip Roth." - Mona Simpson, The New York Times Book Review"Leonard Michaels was an original... with a concise, pungent and pyrotechnic style that tolerated no flab." - Phillip Lopate, The Nation"As good as any writer you're likely to run across." - Alex Abramovich, Bookforum

    In these nine stories and essays, he considers holidaymakers and stone monuments, tales of war and blackbirds, and the great pathos of a tiny death: a fly's impossible fight against the grip of flypaper.

    It's the end of the summer and the seasonal hurricanes loom on the horizon. Set against this background is a romance between two twelve-year-olds: Lucy Bishop, (who lives on the island with her parents [Bill Murray and Frances McDormand] and three younger brothers) and Sam (an orphan who is camping on the island with the Khaki Scout troop). Lucy and Sam hatch a secret plan to run away, and undertake a perilous journey though the woods and across the streams that criss-cross the island, to an isolated cove, where they set up their kingdom. They are pursued by the local sheriff (Bruce Willis) and the scout troop leader Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton). The follies of youth are matched by the compromises of age, and as the conflict between the generations escalates, the hurricane breaks upon the island putting all the characters at risk...

    He is regarded as a major "innovator in the art of the short story"; his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature; and his best works speak to a versatile and luminous narrative gift. Kipling was one of the most popular writers in English, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English language writer to receive the prize, and to date he remains its youngest recipient.