Luck Was a Stranger

Luck Was a Stranger PDF

Author: William R. Cooney

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2003-04-14

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9781469760759

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Who is Bill Cooney? Is he a poet, a madman, a former candidate for the priesthood, a son of one of the most prosperous and well-liked men in the tiny town of Kilbeggan, Ireland, an apple thief, a man spared three times from certain death, a gadfly, a fearless Saxon warrior, a student of medicine at Trinity College, a truck driver, a store clerk, an insurance inspector, a night watchman, a businessman, a writer of hundreds of unpublished puns, a husband, a father, a grandfather, an animal lover? Yes, and he's also the author of this memoir. Born into a prosperous Irish family, Bill Cooney had his life planned out for him before it even began. His mother told him he was destined for the priesthood. His father wanted him to be a doctor. But what he wanted most was to be free. He got out from under the controlling forces of his parents and the Church, to make his own way, leaving for the frontier land of Canada, a journey that took him from prosperity to poverty, and finally, to America, the promised land, where he found that dreams do come true, and nightmares as well.

Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers

Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers PDF

Author: John Gierach

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-06-08

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1501168606

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Witty, shrewd, and always a joy to read, John Gierach, “America’s best fishing writer” (Houston Chronicle) and favorite streamside philosopher, has earned the following of “legions of readers who may not even fish but are drawn to his musings on community, culture, the natural world, and the seasons of life” (Kirkus Reviews). “After five decades, twenty books, and countless columns, [John Gierach] is still a master” (Forbes). Now, in his latest original collection, Gierach shows us why fly-fishing is the perfect antidote to everything that is wrong with the world. “Gierach’s deceptively laconic prose masks an accomplished storyteller…His alert and slightly off-kilter observations place him in the general neighborhood of Mark Twain and James Thurber” (Publishers Weekly). In Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers, Gierach looks back to the long-ago day when he bought his first resident fishing license in Colorado, where the fishing season never ends, and just knew he was in the right place. And he succinctly sums up part of the appeal of his sport when he writes that it is “an acquired taste that reintroduces the chaos of uncertainty back into our well-regulated lives.” Lifelong fisherman though he is, Gierach can write with self-deprecating humor about his own fishing misadventures, confessing that despite all his experience, he is still capable of blowing a strike by a fish “in the usual amateur way.” “Arguably the best fishing writer working” (The Wall Street Journal), Gierach offers witty, trenchant observations not just about fly-fishing itself but also about how one’s love of fly-fishing shapes the world that we choose to make for ourselves.

The Stranger

The Stranger PDF

Author: Max Frei

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2011-01-04

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 1590200608

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The Russian author’s international-bestselling series begins with this “well-written, well-paced grown-up fantasy with a strong dose of reality” (Kirkus Reviews). Fandomania.com’s #1 Book of 2009 To put it bluntly, Max Frei is a loser. He spends his day sleeping and at night he smokes, eats, and loafs around because he can’t catch a wink. But then he gets lucky. Through his dreams, he begins to contact a parallel world where magic is a daily practice—and, strangely, Max seems to fit right in. Once a social outcast, he’s now known in this new world of Echo as the “unequalled Sir Max.” He’s a member of the Department of Absolute Order, formed by a species of enchanted secret agents; his job is to solve cases involving illegal magic. And he’s about to embark on a journey down the winding paths of this strange and unhinged universe. “Fans of Jasper Fforde and Susanna Clark will happily jump into Frei’s world.” —USA Today “If Harry Potter smoked cigarettes and took a certain matter-of-fact pleasure in administering tough justice, he might like Max Frei, the protagonist of this fantasy novel.” —Kirkus Reviews

Stalking the Red Headed Stranger

Stalking the Red Headed Stranger PDF

Author: Randy Poe

Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1458471519

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(Book). Stalking the Red Headed Stranger is a guide to the art and history of professional song plugging. But this isn't your run-of-the-mill history book/instruction manual. It is an in-depth, up-close look into the real music business by industry insider and Grammy Award nominee Randy Poe, who has represented literally hundreds of the greatest songs in the history of popular music, including "Stand By Me," "Happy Together," "Jailhouse Rock," "Under the Boardwalk," "Hound Dog," "What a Wonderful World," "Spanish Harlem," "Chapel of Love," "Summer in the City," "Love Potion No. 9," and "Kansas City." But wait! There's so much more! Interwoven throughout this entertaining and enlightening book is the hysterical saga of the author as he chases American icon Willie Nelson across Canada via plane, taxi, rental car, and even ferryboat in an attempt to pitch a single song to the Red Headed Stranger. And what happens on Willie's bus doesn't stay on Willie's bus. Stalking the Red Headed Stranger , or How to Get Your Songs into the Hands of the Artists Who Really Matter Through Show Business Trickery, Underhanded Skullduggery, Shrewdness, and Chicanery, as Well as Various Less Nefarious Methods of Song Plugging: A Practical Handbook and Historical Portrait is the funniest, hippest, longest-titled how-to book you'll read this year.

Stranger in the Village of the Sick

Stranger in the Village of the Sick PDF

Author: Paul Stoller

Publisher: Beacon Press

Published: 2005-04-15

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0807072613

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After more than fifty years of good health, anthropologist Paul Stoller suddenly found himself diagnosed with lymphoma. The only thing more transformative than his fear and dread of cancer was the place it ultimately took him: twenty-five years back in time to his days as an apprentice to a West African sorcerer, Adamu Jenitongo. Stranger in the Village of the Sick follows Stoller down this unexpected path toward personal discovery, growth, and healing. The stories here are about life in the village of the healthy and the village of the sick, and they highlight differences in how illness is culturally perceived. In America and the West, illness is war; we strive to eradicate it from our bodies and lives. In West Africa, however, illness is an ever-present companion, and sorcerers learn to master illnesses like cancer through a combination of acceptance, pragmatism, and patience. Stoller provides a view into the ancient practices of sorcery, revealing that as an apprentice he learned to read divining shells, mix potions, and recite incantations. But it wasn't until he got cancer that he realized that sorcery embodied a more profound meaning, one that every person could use: "Sorcery is a body of knowledge and practice that enables one to see things clearly and to walk with confidence on the path of fear."