The joys and travails of building a home in Baja California.

    They all grew up dreaming of skating in the big league as stars. Then one day, a coach tells them the only way to make it is to drop the gloves. And every guy says the same thing: I'll do whatever it takes to play in the NHL.Not Stu Grimson, though. When he was offered a contract to patrol the ice for the Calgary Flames, he said no thanks, and went to university instead. And that's the way Grimson has approached his career and his life: on his own terms. He stared down the toughest players on the planet for seventeen years, while working on his first university degree. He retired on his own terms, and went on to practice law, including a stint as in-house counsel for the NHLPA.This has put him in a unique position when it comes to commenting on the game. He's seen it from the trenches, and he's seen it from the courtroom. This puts him in the eye of the storm surrounding fighting and concussions. And he handles that the way he does everything: on his own terms. When Don Cherry called him out on televison, it was the seemingly indominable Cherry who backed down. Hockey fans will be fascinated by his data-driven defence of fighting.But in the end, this is not a book about fighting and locker-room stories. It's the story of a young man who ultimately took on the toughest role in pro sports and came out the other side. Where many others have not.

    Poulson, inspired him. The professor’s passion and love for teaching prompted Michael to change his major and his life’s direction. But nothing prepared Michael for the reality of a Title One school. Teaching is fun until a 7-year-old is assaulting you or you’re dodging furniture being thrown at you. When you mix the craziness of a classroom with a marriage that was about to implode, anyone might want to quit. Smiling on the outside while feeling dead on the inside took this dedicated teacher to the breaking point. Michael knew he must change what was inside him, in his approach to life, or nothing would change anywhere else. So Michael took matters into his own hands to make four key paradigm shifts that helped him create a world of successful learning for his students and love within both the classroom and beyond. The result has been a transformation that’s taken Michael far beyond the classroom as he inspires thousands across the country. Many agree teaching is an amazing profession but there’s little discussion why so many teachers are leaving the profession. Get Up or Give Up: How I Almost Gave Up on Teaching shines a light into the internal battles and decisions educators face daily, and how we must make a conscious decision either to give in—or push through.

    She attended school against her parents' wishes. Despite her intellectual curiosity, she consistently failed her subjects because she couldn't keep up with the fast-paced, competitive, shame-inducing educational style.Flunking her 10th-grade finals just about extinguished her academic hopes. But one act of kindness radically changed her trajectory when an inspired acquaintance convinced her to redo the grade. Her new teacher--who was passionate and caring--taught students instead of subjects. A friend from her church gave her the finest tutoring, much-needed friendship, and even an example of a loving home and family.After completing 10th grade with top marks, she spent her remaining school years working tirelessly, eventually earning the Best All-Round Student award. Her passion for learning expanded into a passion for teaching; she pursued post-secondary degrees in America and began an influential career as a professor of education and international education consultant.Hong's eloquent present-tense narration animates scenes of family strife and academic struggle and evokes an astounding range of emotions--commiseration, frustration, and eventually elation. Something is always developing, whether it's the narrator herself or the plot.Though the memoir charts the author's intellectual growth, it also considers complex family relationships, poverty, Southeast Asian culture and education, disability, and determination. Hong demonstrates, through her own experiences, the pleasures and rewards of scholarship and effective teaching, and her account underscores how ordinary people can have life-changing effects on others.DescriptionWhen people first meet Barbara Hong, they often conclude that her life must have always been enriched. They assume she had loving, successful parents and all the support she needed to reach her goals. Nothing could be further from the truth.Hong's path to an Ivy League university and beyond started in a filthy tenement in Singapore where she lived with an abusive father and an illiterate mother. Even as a child of six, she worked in her sweatshop home to help with extra money, which her father often wasted on alcohol. As she endured his drinking and abuse, she feared that the pain she internalized could shatter her.But instead of falling apart, Hong managed to escape her misery, thanks to a teacher who believed in her. Once she knew she wasn't the brainless "cabbage head" her mother called her, she began excelling as a student, eventually finding the courage to leave her home and discover her true calling as a knowledge seeker, educator, and advocate.Hong's inspirational journey from a sweatshop home upbringing to influential professor movingly illustrates the true strength of the human spirit and the power of teachers.Failing UP was recognized as one of only 2% of books reviewed to earn a Kirkus STAR--the most prestigious designation in the book industry in awarding books of exceptional merit. To Read the Kirkus Review, visit: https: //www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ba...

    But few could have imagined that Pacquiao would have ever reached the pinnacle of his sport, considering his background. He ran away from home—a cardboard shack in General Santos City in the Philippines—at age fourteen. After making his way to Manila, and eventually the United States, Pacquiao hooked up with trainer Freddie Roach in 2001, and, from there, his fighting career took off.Named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” last year, the aptly nicknamed Pac-Man is a fascinating figure who will go down as one of the greatest boxers in history.

    That same year, he finished third on the Big Wave World Tour, despite only surfing three of the five events. Chris’s mantra is Dream it, See it, Believe it, Achieve it. With his infectious enthusiasm, Chris tells how he pulled off death-defying antics, time and again, overcame overwhelming obstacles and manoeuvred around the many random twists of fate to achieve his goals and fulfil his dreams.

    She has survived brutality and discrimination with astonishing resilience and optimism. "Horrifying, heartbreaking, informative and inspiring." "A story from the heart...a riveting memoir." "An eye-opening view of life on the streets and beyond." "Cry Purple chronicles a shattered life, rebuilt through sheer determination, courage and faith." "The most inspiring story I've ever read. A must-read filled with hope."

    The bloke can write. He rhapsodizes about heroin better than anyone since Jim Carroll. With the flick of his enviable pen, he can summarize childhood thus: ‘My very first utterance in life was not a single word, but a sentence. It was, ‘Don’t do that.’... Russell Brand has a compelling story." — New York Times Book ReviewThe gleeful and candid New York Times bestselling autobiography of addiction, recovery, and rise to fame from Russell Brand, star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and one of the biggest personalities in comedy today.Picking up where he left off in My Booky Wook, movie star and comedian Russell Brand details his rapid climb to fame and fortune in a shockingly candid, resolutely funny, and unbelievably electrifying tell-all: Booky Wook 2. Brand’s performances in Arthur, Get Him to the Greek, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall have earned him a place in fans’ hearts; now, with a drop of Chelsea Handler’s Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, a dash of Tommy Lee’s Dirt, and a spoonful of Nikki Sixx’s The Heroin Diaries, Brand goes all the way—exposing the mad genius behind the audacious comic we all know (or think we know) and love (or at least, lust).

    Within the first four years of his career, Josh participated in several record sales, including the highest sale in the history of Brentwood Park and the highest sales on the exclusive Roxbury, Foothill and Monovale Drives, making him one of Los Angeles' hottest agents. Flagg has participated in sales up to $25,000,000."The best thing I have seen Josh do, was wrap an entire house in a big red bow before delivering the keys to the new owners. He is very creative, and that is why he is so successful."In Josh s mind, there are no limitations. Josh is also one of the stars of BRAVO TVs, Million Dollar Listing, returning for its fourth season February 2011. In his new book, Million Dollar Agent: Brokering the Dream, Josh writes about having travelled to more than fifty countries, his years growing up in one of the most famous cities in the world (Beverly Hills) and how to develop a successful career in high-end real estate."My funniest experience so far was when I fell into the pool of a client s house in the middle of a showing, clothes, jewelry and all! Well I couldn t let that slow me down, so I put on the owners robe, threw on some slippers and continued the showing. The buyers sent me a pair of swim-trunks when we closed escrow." -- Josh Flagg

    It contains a powerful remedy for indifference in just one word...resilience!Resilience has begun to outstrip 'sustainability' as the action to be taken to preserve many species, including our own.Graham Kerr, as the 'Galloping Gourmet' was referred to, during his international TV series, as the 'High Priest of Hedonism'. He had learned how to eat, cook and profit from some of the finest and richest foods in the world and he used those gifts with enormous enthusiasm and good humor.Suddenly everything changed as an accident severed his success with one blow.Searching for a return to resilience for himself and his family he began an ocean sailing adventure that took them 24,000 miles in 2 years.Then follows one of the most observed U turns ever made by one man. The Kerr's went from a conspicuous gourmet lifestyle to that of a small family living their lives beyond immediate self-interest and they did this in plain sight!Graham uses the literary practice of the 'extended metaphor' to enquire how habits are both formed and relinquished. He does this by comparing his life with that of a wild pacific Chinook salmon. Using poetic license, imagination and good science he asks his readers to hear from the salmon...direct and to see how both man and fish have somewhat similar rites of passage.They are swept 'downstream' where they face continuous discovery, some of which are difficult, some joyful...even hilarious.Upon reaching the salt waters they encounter the challenge of an almost limitless 'ocean of opportunity' where they must eat or be eaten, always driven by immediate self-interest and the need to survive.Finally they turn away from conspicuous consumption and begin to go 'upstream on purpose', this time motivated not just to survive as individuals, but also as a species...It's a wild ride as the scent of their natal river begins to provide direction for their way back home, where it all began.Kerr is not an angry activist, as he puts it."I have a story to tell and it's personal. I have made a series of very obvious leaps over some major obstacles, not unlike the salmon. Their flashes of silver are, for me, a splendid example of the resilience that is ours for the asking."Flash of Silver is supported by an extensive web site that includes an interactive 'REFLECTIVE READERS CLUB' at www.grahamkerr.com/RRC

    He shares poignant stories of his childhood, including one about rolling pennies by candlelight because the electricity had once again been cut off, and his little sister needed medication. At one point, his alcoholic parents abandoned him and his two siblings for five days, with no food, heat, or electricity in the middle of winter.But as Doug grew, his determination to survive grew with him. Despite being accepted to the Air Force Academy directly after high school, he stayed closer to home so he could look after his younger sister. And as various opportunities opened up to him, he discovered that his heart belonged in the political arena; for it was there, he believed, that he could work for real change and bring help to those who suffered as he did as a child.Rolling Pennies in the Dark reminds readers that it is possible to grow up in the most deplorable of conditions and still find success. More significantly, MacKinnon offers real solutions to our nation’s growing poverty problem. This is an important, essential book.

    

    In tracing his ancestry, the influence on both his maternal and paternal sides is evident in the values they imbued in their children – the importance of family, the value of hard work and education, an uncompromising moral code, compassion for those less fortunate and unflinching refusal to accept an unjust political regime or acknowledge its oppressive laws. As a young activist in the Pan-Africanist Congress, at the tender age of fifteen, Moseneke was arrested, detained and, in 1963, sentenced to ten years on Robben Island for participating in anti-apartheid activities. Physical incarceration, harsh conditions and inhumane treatment could not imprison the political prisoners’ minds, however, and for many the Island became a school not only in politics but an opportunity for dedicated study, formal and informal. It set the young Moseneke on a path towards a law degree that would provide the bedrock for a long and fruitful legal career and see him serve his country in the highest court. My Own Liberator charts Moseneke’s rise as one of the country’s top legal minds, who not only helped to draft the interim constitution, but for fifteen years acted as a guardian of that constitution for all South Africans, helping to make it a living document for the country and its people. “This memoir is a fascinating account of the formation of the cadres who would have the responsibility both to help liberate our country and attend to its reconstruction and development.” Thabo Mbeki

    It is about the skinny little girl they called 'Gidget' who overcame a king tide of obstacles, from chronic fatigue and depression to debilitating injury and family tragedy, to become an icon in the male-dominated world of competitive surfing. Winner of a record seven women's world championships, she also blazed trails in the mountainous waves of Hawaii's outer reefs, earning respect where it mattered most-in the water. ...

    Gordon Liddy offers his unabashedly politically incorrect view on America.