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Committed: Confessions of a Fantasy Football Junkie
by Mark St. AmantFantasy football is America's fastest growing obsession, and sports humorist Mark St. Amant is among the obsessed. Entering the 2003 season--utterly fed up with never having won his league championship--St. Amant decided to embark on a quest for fantasy football knowledge and glory. He abandoned his advertising career and made fantasy football his new full-time job, setting out on a sprawling reconnaissance mission to discover what really makes this game -- and its players--tick. He stalked industry experts and gained access to leagues from all over the country, from private local leagues to the biggest (and richest) league on the planet, the World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF) in Las Vegas. Wading through the game's history, from its humble beginnings in a New York hotel in 1962 to the serious business it is today, Committed takes readers on a wickedly funny, deeply informative descent into the underbelly of an exploding national pastime. St. Amant provides an all-access, sideline pass to his entire season, and this world, as he strategizes, plots, trades, rants, and chases his league championship. For longtime veterans and newbies, hardcore sports nuts and casual sports fans, Committed reveals the truth behind the unique attraction of fantasy football."Mark St. Amant quit his job and dropped out of life in order to concentrate on his fantasy football team. Obviously, he is the smartest man who's ever lived." --Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs "Dude, I get more f***ing e-mails from you than from the girl I'm seeing!" This was the exasperated, fourteen-word e-mail that told me once and for all, like a bucket of freezing-cold water to the face, that I had officially become a fantasy football junkie. It was December 2002 and I was desperately trying to make a deal before the trade deadline cut me off. My target was my friend, former coworker, and Felon Fantasy League-mate, Mark "Big Dog" Moll, co-owner of the eponymous Big Dogs. You see, my team--Acme Fantasy Football, Inc., named in honor of the perpetually frustrated cartoon character Wile E. Coyote--was 6-4 and tied with three other squads for the last of four coveted FFL playoff slots. But I was way behind in total points, our league's first tiebreaker. I knew I couldn't pull ahead and make the playoffs without acquiring a total stud and having an absolutely huge final four weeks. Enter Mr. Total Stud, Kansas City Chiefs running back Priest Holmes. I sent Big Dog approximately sixteen e-mails within the span of, oh, three minutes, frantically trying to get him to trade me Priest for near-stud Buffalo Bills running back Travis Henry--whom I didn't really need now that Saints RB Deuce McAllister had emerged into a weekly stud--and Quincy Morgan, the Cleveland Browns receiver who had just had a not-a-chance-in-hell-will-he-do-it-again 118-yard, 2-TD game against Jacksonville. Sell high. Henry and Morgan for Priest was a very fair deal. And by very fair, I mean that I was trying to rob my friend blind--
Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training
by Adam SternGrey&’s Anatomy meets One L in this psychiatrist&’s charming and poignant memoir about his residency at Harvard. Adam Stern was a student at a state medical school before being selected to train as a psychiatry resident at one of the most prestigious programs in the country. His new and initially intimidating classmates were high achievers from the Ivy League and other elite universities around the nation. Faculty raved about the group as though the residency program had won the lottery, nicknaming them &“The Golden Class,&” but would Stern ever prove that he belonged? In his memoir, Stern pulls back the curtain on the intense and emotionally challenging lessons he and his fellow doctors learned while studying the human condition, and ultimately, the value of connection. The narrative focuses on these residents, their growth as doctors, and the life choices they make as they try to survive their grueling four-year residency. Rich with drama, insight, and emotion, Stern shares engrossing stories of life on the psychiatric wards, as well as the group&’s experiences as they grapple with impostor syndrome and learn about love and loss. Most importantly, as they study how to help distressed patients in search of a better life, they discover the meaning of failure and the preciousness of success. Stern&’s growth as a doctor, and as a man, have readers rooting for him and his patients, and ultimately find their own hearts fuller for having taken this journey with him.
Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen
by Suzanne ScanlonA raw and masterful memoir about becoming a woman and going mad—and doing both at once. When Suzanne Scanlon was a student at Barnard in the 90s, grieving the loss of her mother—feeling untethered and swimming through inarticulable pain—she made a suicide attempt that landed her in the New York State Psychiatric Institute. After nearly three years and countless experimental treatments, Suzanne left the ward on shaky legs. In the decades it took her to recover from the experience, Suzanne came to understand her suffering as part of something larger: a long tradition of women whose complicated and compromised stories of self-actualization are reduced to &“crazy chick&” and &“madwoman&” narratives. It was a thrilling discovery, and she searched for more books, more woman writers, as the journey of her life converged with her journey through the literature that shaped her. Transporting, honest, and graceful, Committed is a story of discovery and recovery, reclaiming the idea of the madwoman as a template for insight and transcendence through the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Janet Frame, Audre Lorde, Shulamith Firestone, and others.
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
by Rhoda BlumbergIn 1853, few Japanese people knew that a country called America even existed.<P><P> For centuries, Japan had isolated itself from the outside world by refusing to trade with other countries and even refusing to help shipwrecked sailors, foreign or Japanese. The country's people still lived under a feudal system like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. But everything began to change when American Commodore Perry and his troops sailed to the Land of the Rising Sun, bringing with them new science and technology, and a new way of life.<P> Newbery Medal Honor book
Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
by Edward J. Renehan JrArmed with a trove of previously unreleased archives, Edward J. Renehan Jr. offers a compelling portrait of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built large shipping and rail enterprises into cornerstones of the American economy, and amassed one of the greatest fortunes the world has ever known. This is the definitive biography of a man whose influence on American business was unsurpassed in his day--or any other.
Commodus: The Damned Emperors Book 2 (The Damned Emperors)
by Simon TurneyWorshipped by Rome. Betrayed by love. Stalked by death. Rome is enjoying a period of stability and prosperity. The Empire's borders are growing, and there are two sons in the imperial succession for the first time in Rome's history. But all is not as it appears. Cracks are beginning to show. Two decades of war have taken their toll, and there are whispers of a sickness in the East. The Empire stands on the brink of true disaster, an age of gold giving way to one of iron and rust, a time of reason and strength sliding into hunger and pain.The decline may yet be halted, though. One man tries to hold the fracturing empire together. To Rome, he is their emperor, their Hercules, their Commodus.But Commodus is breaking up himself, and when the darkness grips, only one woman can hold him together. To Rome she was nothing. The plaything of the emperor. To Commodus, she was everything. She was Marcia.
Commodus: The Damned Emperors Book 2 (The\damned Emperors Ser.)
by Simon TurneyRome is enjoying a period of stability and prosperity. The Empire's borders are growing, and there are two sons in the imperial succession for the first time in Rome's history. But all is not as it appears. Cracks are beginning to show. Two decades of war have taken their toll, and there are whispers of a sickness in the East. The Empire stands on the brink of true disaster, an age of gold giving way to one of iron and rust, a time of reason and strength sliding into hunger and pain.The decline may yet be halted, though. One man tries to hold the fracturing empire together. To Rome, he is their emperor, their Hercules, their Commodus.But Commodus is breaking up himself, and when the darkness grips, only one woman can hold him together. To Rome she was nothing. The plaything of the emperor. To Commodus, she was everything. She was Marcia.
Common As Muck!: The Autobiography of Roy 'Chubby' Brown
by Roy Chubby BrownBy the time he was nineteen, Royston Vasey had married, divorced, fathered two children, spent two years in Britain's toughest Borstal, served three prison stretches and been stabbed while in the Merchant Navy. He thought his only career choice would be a life of crime. Fifteen years later, he was one of Britain's most successful comics, playing live to half a million fans a year as Roy 'Chubby' Brown. COMMON AS MUCK! tells an incredible story of hardships, heartbreak and, ultimately, success. From an impoverished childhood with his abusive father, to his brand of comedy too rude for television and his determined fight against throat cancer, COMMON AS MUCK! is a frank telling of a remarkable life, laced with Roy's irrepressible humour.
Common As Muck!: The Autobiography of Roy 'Chubby' Brown
by Roy Chubby BrownBy the time he was nineteen, Royston Vasey had married, divorced, fathered two children, spent two years in Britain's toughest Borstal, served three prison stretches and been stabbed while in the Merchant Navy. He thought his only career choice would be a life of crime. Fifteen years later, he was one of Britain's most successful comics, playing live to half a million fans a year as Roy 'Chubby' Brown. COMMON AS MUCK! tells an incredible story of hardships, heartbreak and, ultimately, success. From an impoverished childhood with his abusive father, to his brand of comedy too rude for television and his determined fight against throat cancer, COMMON AS MUCK! is a frank telling of a remarkable life, laced with Roy's irrepressible humour.
Common As Muck!: The Autobiography of Roy 'Chubby' Brown
by Roy Chubby BrownAbandoned by his mother when he was just nine years old, by the time Royston Vasey was nineteen he had been married, divorced, had two children, spent two years in Borstal and several months in prison, and had been shot at in the Merchant Navy. By the time he was thirty-five, he was one of Britain's most successful comics, playing live to half a million fans a year as Roy 'Chubby' Brown. In Common as Muck he tells his incredible story. Frank, funny and - perhaps unexpectedly - often moving, it is a tale of a man battling to escape his background and become a star. From his impossibly deprived childhood to his controversial comic persona to his more recent battle against throat cancer, Roy 'Chubby' Brown's life is as remarkable and fascinating as the man himself.
Common Ground: A Political Life
by Justin TrudeauJustin Trudeau&’s candid memoir reveals for the first time the experiences that have shaped him over the course of his life, revealing how his passion for politics took root. From his childhood at the prime ministerial residence of 24 Sussex to his leadership of the Liberal party, Trudeau captures the formative moments of his upbringing, including the influence of his father, Pierre, who was prime minister before him, and the tragic death of his brother, Michel. Filled with anecdotes, personal reflections, and never-before-seen photographs from his own collection, Common Ground is an intimate portrait of the man who has thrust Canada back onto the world stage. Not only this, but it also presents a moving case for a better kind of politics at a time when people are more disillusioned with politics than ever before.
Common Ground: Encounters with Nature at the Edges of Life
by Rob CowenAll too often, we think of nature as something distinct from ourselves, something to go and see, a place that’s separate from the ordinary modern world in which we live and work. But if we take the time to look, we soon find that’s not how nature works. Even in our parceled-out, paved-over urban environs, nature is all around us; it is in us. It is us. That’s what Rob Cowen discovered after moving to a new home in northern England. After ten years in London he was suddenly adrift, searching for a sense of connection. He found himself drawn to a square-mile patch of waste ground at the edge of town. Scrappy, weed-filled, this heart-shaped tangle of land was the very definition of overlooked—a thoroughly in-between place that capitalism no longer had any use for, leaving nature to take its course. Wandering its meadows, woods, hedges, and fields, Cowen found it was also a magical, mysterious place, haunted and haunting, abandoned but wildly alive—and he fell in fascinated love. Common Ground is a true account of that place and Cowen’s transformative journey through its layers and lives, but it’s much more too. As the land’s stories intertwine with events in his own life—and he learns he is to become a father for the first time—the divisions between human and nature begin to blur and shift. The place turns out to be a mirror, revealing what we are, what we’re not and how those two things are ultimately inseparable. This is a book about discovering a new world, a forgotten world on the fringes of our daily lives, and the richness that comes from uncovering the stories and lives—animal and human—contained within. It is an unforgettable piece of nature writing, part of a brilliant tradition that stretches from Gilbert White to Robert Macfarlane and Helen Macdonald. “I am dreaming of the edge-land again,” Cowen writes. Read Common Ground, and you, too, will be dreaming of the spaces in between, and what—including us—thrives there.
Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance
by Alexander ZaitchikWho is this guy and why are people listening? Forget Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity--Glenn Beck is the right's new media darling and the unofficial leader of the conservative grassroots. Lampooned by the left and lionized by the far right, his bluster-and-tears brand of political commentary has commandeered attention on both sides of the aisle. Glenn Beck has emerged over the last decade as a unique and bizarre conservative icon for the new century. He fantasizes aloud about killing his political opponents and encourages his listeners to embrace a cynical paranoia that slides easily into a fantasyland filled with enemies that do not exist, and solutions that are incoherent, at best. Since the election of Barack Obama, Beck's bombastic, conspiratorial, and often viciously personal approach to political combat has made him one of the most controversial figures in the history of American broadcasting. In Common Nonsense, investigative reporter Alexander Zaitchik explores Beck's strange brew of ratings lust, boundless ego, conspiratorial hard-right politics, and gimmicky morning-radio entertainment chops. Separates the facts from the fiction, following Beck from his troubled childhood to his recent rise to the top of the conservative media heap. Zaitchik's recent three-part series in Salon caused so much buzz, Beck felt the need to attack it on his show. Based on Zaitchik's interviews with former Beck coworkers and review of countless Beck writings and television and radio shows. Examines Beck's high-profile obsessions (Acorn and Van Jones) as well as his lesser-known influences (obscure Mormon radicals like Cleon Skousen.) Zaitchik's writing has appeared in the New Republic, the Nation, Salon, Wired, the New York Times, and AlternetBeck, a perverse and high-impact media spectacle, has emerged as a leader in a conservative protest movement that raises troubling questions about the health of American democracy.
Common People: In Pursuit of My Ancestors
by Alison Light"Family history begins with missing persons," Alison Light writes in Common People. We wonder about those we've lost, and those we never knew, about the long skein that led to us, and to here, and to now. So we start exploring. Most of us, however, give up a few generations back. We run into a gap, get embarrassed by a ne'er-do-well, or simply find our ancestors are less glamorous than we'd hoped. That didn't stop Alison Light: in the last weeks of her father's life, she embarked on an attempt to trace the history of her family as far back as she could reasonably go. The result is a clear-eyed, fascinating, frequently moving account of the lives of everyday people, of the tough decisions and hard work, the good luck and bad breaks, that chart the course of a life. Light's forebears--servants, sailors, farm workers--were among the poorest, traveling the country looking for work; they left few lasting marks on the world. But through her painstaking work in archives, and her ability to make the people and struggles of the past come alive, Light reminds us that "every life, even glimpsed through the chinks of the census, has its surprises and secrets. " What she did for the servants of Bloomsbury in her celebrated Mrs. Woolf and the Servants Light does here for her own ancestors, and, by extension, everyone's: draws their experiences from the shadows of the past and helps us understand their lives, estranged from us by time yet inextricably interwoven with our own. Family history, in her hands, becomes a new kind of public history.
Common Sense and a Little Fire
by Annelise OrleckThis book has its roots in the memories and stories of my grandmother, Lena Orleck, a sharp-tongued woman with a talent for survival and for dominating every she met.
Common Sense of an Uncommon Man
by Jim Denney Michael ReaganSome say Ronald Reagan was the greatest president of our century. He rescued America from economic collapse and ended the cold war. He toppled the Soviet "Evil Empire" without firing a shot. Now his son, Michael Reagan -- the most listened-to nighttime talk show host -- takes you on a tour of the heart and mind of our fortieth president. Funny, inspiring, and warmly nostalgic, The Common Sense of an Uncommon Man is filled with photographs covering the span of Ronald Reagan's life. This enduring keepsake will be treasured forever by all who honor Ronald Reagan, cherish freedom, and love our American way of life.
Communism: A Love Story
by Jeff SparrowFor more than seventy years, idealists and rebels of all stripes saw in the Communist Party the best hope for a world remade. Who were the people who dedicated themselves to that beautiful dream? How did they experience its shimmering promise - and cope with its shattering collapse? This is the story of Guido Baracchi, the playboy and dilettante who experienced communism at its best - and its very worst. His love affair with Marxism took him from his father's astronomical observatory to the rough halls of the legendary Wobblies. He debated Bob Menzies at the University of Melbourne; he wooed novelist Katharine Susannah Prichard on a luxury ocean liner; he belonged to illegal organisations in two world wars. The Sun dubbed him 'Melbourne's Lenin', and ASIO classified him 'a person of bad moral character and violent and unstable political views'. From Weimar Germany to Stalin's Russia, from Melbourne's Pentridge gaol to the bohemian colony of Montsalvat, Baracchi entwined political intrigue with a series of tempestuous romances with poets, artists and playwrights. Yet communism remained his real love and communism broke his heart - in a betrayal that still resonates in the political choices available today.
Communist Daze: The Many Misadventures of a Soviet Doctor
by Vladimir A. TsesisThis darkly comic memoir &“reveal[s] much about the poverty, drunkenness, political corruption, anti-Semitism, and fundamental absurdity of rural life in the Soviet 1960s&” (Deborah A. Field author of Private Life and Communist Morality in Khrushchev&’s Russia). Welcome to Gradieshti, a Soviet village awash in gray buildings and ramshackle fences, home to a large, collective farm and to the most oddball and endearing cast of characters possible. For three years in the 1960s, Vladimir Tsesis—inestimable Soviet doctor and irrepressible jester—was stationed in a village where racing tractor drivers tossed vodka bottles to each other for sport; where farmers and townspeople secretly mocked and tried to endure the Communist way of life; where milk for children, running water, and adequate electricity were rare; where the world&’s smallest, motley parade became the country&’s longest; and where one compulsively amorous Communist Party leader met a memorable, chilling fate. From a frantic pursuit of calcium-deprived, lunatic Socialist chickens to a father begging on his knees to Soviet officials to obtain antibiotic for his dying child, Vladimir&’s tales of Gradieshti are unforgettable. Sometimes hysterical, often moving, always a remarkable and highly entertaining insider&’s look at rural life under the old Soviet regime, they are a sobering exposé of the terrible inadequacies of its much-lauded socialist medical system. &“To understand the confusing reality of Russia today, it helps to recall the &‘bad old days&’ of the late, unlamented Soviet Union. This warm, touching and occasionally hilarious book can assist those recollections.&” —Michael Medved, nationally syndicated radio show host
Community Architect: The Life and Vision of Clarence S. Stein
by Kristin E. LarsenClarence S. Stein (1882–1975) was an architect, housing visionary, regionalist, policymaker, and colleague of some of the most influential public figures of the early to mid-twentieth century, including Lewis Mumford and Benton MacKaye. Kristin E. Larsen's biography of Stein comprehensively examines his built and unbuilt projects and his intellectual legacy as a proponent of the "garden city" for a modern age. This examination of Stein’s life and legacy focuses on four critical themes: his collaborative ethic in envisioning policy, design, and development solutions; promotion and implementation of “investment housing;” his revolutionary approach to community design, as epitomized in the Radburn Idea; and his advocacy of communitarian regionalism. His cutting-edge projects such as Sunnyside Gardens in New York City; Baldwin Hills Village in Los Angeles; and Radburn, New Jersey, his “town for the motor age,” continue to inspire community designers and planners in the United States and around the world.Stein was among the first architects to integrate new design solutions and support facilities into large-scale projects intended primarily to house working-class people, and he was a cofounder of the Regional Planning Association of America. As a planner, designer, and, at times, financier of new housing developments, Stein wrestled with the challenges of creating what today we would term “livable,” “walkable,” and “green” communities during the ascendency of the automobile. He managed these challenges by partnering private capital with government funding, as well as by collaborating with colleagues in planning, architecture, real estate, and politics.
Community-Engaged Scholarship: Reflections from Netter Center Alumni
by Rita Axelroth Hodges and Michael ZuckermanA collection of stories by Penn alumni whose lives were transformed by engaging with the West Philadelphia communityFor over thirty years, the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships has served as the University of Pennsylvania’s primary vehicle for advancing civic and community engagement at Penn. The Netter Center develops and helps implement democratic, mutually transformative, place-based partnerships between Penn and its local geographic community of West Philadelphia. These partnerships advance research, teaching, learning, and service while improving the quality of life and learning in the community. One of the Netter Center’s primary objectives has been to educate Penn students to be creative, compassionate, ethical citizens who contribute significantly to improving the welfare of others—while they are students and throughout their lives and careers.Community-Engaged Scholarship is a collection of stories told by alumni of the University of Pennsylvania whose lives were profoundly shaped by engaging with the West Philadelphia community as students. Their reflections trace the linear relationship between their involvement in democratic community partnerships through Penn’s Netter Center and their current professional activities, primarily in academia, where they remain actively engaged in the struggle to build a more democratic and equitable society. The mutuality and humility that pervade these autobiographical accounts are the core of the democratic aspiration to which the Netter Center is and has always been dedicated. The stories are testimony to the Netter Center’s and founding director Ira Harkavy’s enduring influence on the next generation of community-engaged scholars and practitioners.Contributors: H. Samy Alim, Jeff Camarillo, Christina Cantrill, Tamara Dubowitz, Bernice Garnett, Rita Axelroth Hodges, John L. Jackson Jr., Jacqueline Kraemer, David Park, Jiyoung Park, Wendell Pritchett, Eric Schwartz, Margo Shea, Salamishah Tillet, Kim Van Naarden Braun, Michael Vazquez, Jason Yip, Andrew Zitcer, Michael W. Zuckerman.
Como la primera vez
by Shawn Inmon Sofía FernandezComo la primera vez por Shawn Inmon Vivir y enamorarse en un pequeño pueblo en los años 70. Si recuerdas tu primer amor, tu primera cita y tu primer beso, Como la primera vez te hará revivir esos momentos. Shawn conoció a Dawn cuando ella se mudó al lado de su casa en 1976. Al poco tiempo, se hicieron mejores amigos para luego ser algo más. Shawn era sociable pero muy estudioso, Dawn, hermosa y reservada. Su romance de novela terminó cuando los padres de Dawn les prohibieron volver a verse. No lo hicieron - por 27 años, hasta que un encuentro del destino los envolvió en una tormenta de emociones y recuerdos. ¿Puede la unión del primer amor no solo sobrevivir, sino florecer aún más? Como la primera vez te hará sumergir en la magia de un amor juvenil en un pequeño pueblo de los Estados Unidos en 1970. No importa cuánto cambie el mundo, algunas cosas - música eterna, bailes escolares, besuqueos en la parte trasera de un Chevy Vega, y por supuesto amor verdadero - siempre seguirán igual.
Como um Marinheiro Eu Partirei: Uma Viagem com Jacques Brel
by Nuno Costa SantosUma narrativa profundamente humana que revisita a carreira e a vida do famoso cantor belga Jacques Brel e a sua passagem crepuscular pelos Açores. «UM HOMEM FUMA UM CIGARRO À PROA DE UM IATE,CONCENTRADO NO SOM DO MAR.» Este homem é Jacques Brel, compositor e intérprete de canções de um lirismo e elaboração extraordinários, explosivas, contagiantes, que arrebatam audiências. De espírito rebelde e inconformado, no auge da sua popularidade, Brel toma a decisão intempestiva de abandonar para sempre os palcos. Romance, biografia, reportagem, reflexão sobre os nossos medos mais secretos, em Como um Marinheiro Eu Partirei, Nuno Costa Santos compõe com a força da Literatura uma indagação sobre a identidade pessoal.
Como é Azul o Meu Vale
by Jean Gill ViniciusO verdadeiro aroma da Provença? Lavanda, tomilho e fossa séptica. Há centenas de coisas interessantes a se fazer numa banheira, mas lavar pratos não é uma delas, nem algo que a escritora Jean Gill tinha em mente, ao trocar o seu vale em Gales por um vale francês. Ávida por escapar do estômago do elefante, aquela mescla de névoa cinza que em Gales chama-se de clima, ela ofereceu seu certificado de natação a um perplexo corretor de imóveis provençal e comprou uma casa com belas estrelas e com sua própria água de nascente. Ou melhor, como descoberto depois, a nascente de um vizinho, que é a única a abastecer a cozinha e que, de acordo com os gentis rapazes da companhia de água, está escoando a água suja de forma ilegal direto na rua principal... e há coisas piores... Mas como é que se pode resistir a uma vila chamada Dieulefit, “Deus a fez”, a vila “aonde todos pertencem”? Descubra a verdadeira Provença em boa companhia. “Ri em voz alta... uma imagem tão vívida dos campos de lavandas, girassóis e oliveiras que você se sente como se estivesse lá com ela.” Stephanie Sheldrake, Revista Living France
Companions in Courage: Triumphant Tales of Heroic Athletes
by Pat Lafontaine Ernie Valutis Chas Griffin Larry WeismanFrom one of the greatest hockey players in NHL history comes a collection of inspiring true stories about athletic heroes who have persevered in the face of overwhelming odds. Before his retirement from the NHL in 1998, Pat Lafontaine inspired fans everywhere by battling back from the side effects of several serious head injuries and returning to the ice. Now, in this fascinating collection of true stories, he shares the personal details of his own struggle with depression and physical rehabilitation, as well as those of other amazing athletes who were challenged by adversityand won. From the hockey player at Northeastern University who lives with cystic fibrosis, to a young girl who overcame a double amputation to become a star sprinter, to the volleyball coach at Columbine High School who lost his daughter in that tragedy, these are stories of gifted young athletes whothrough their exampleswill inspire others with the determination, courage, and winning spirit necessary to break through lifes road-blocksand succeed.
Company C
by Haim WatzmanWhen American-born Haim Watzman immigrated to Israel, he was drafted into the army and, after eighteen months of compulsory service, was assigned to Company C, the reserve infantry unit that would define the next twenty years of his life. From 1984 until 2002, for at least a month a year, Watzman, who had never aspired to military adventure, was a soldier.Watzman was a soldier as he adjusted to his new country, raised his children, and pursued a career as a writer and translator. At times he defended his adopted country's borders; at other times he patrolled beyond them, or that gray area, the occupied territories. A religiously observant Jew who opposed Israel's presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he served in uniform in conflicts that he demonstrated against in civilian clothes. Throughout, he developed a deep and abiding bond with the diverse men of Company C-a fellowship that cemented his commitment to reserve service even as he questioned the occupation he was enforcing.In this engrossing account of the first Intifada, the period of the Oslo Accords, and Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank as lived by citizen-soldiers in the field, Watzman examines our obligations to country, friends, family, and God-and our duty to protect our institutions even as we fight to reform them.