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In this hilarious and moving book, popular English humorist Miles Kington faces cancer and death with his sparkling trademark wit, musing on everything from board games and yodeling to the prospect of being outlived by his dog. When some people are told they have only a few months to live, they might travel around the world or write their memoirs or put their affairs in order. When it happened at the age of 66 to Miles Kington-one of England's best-loved humorists-he did what he did best, offering sharp, wry, laugh-out-loud observations and ideas about his situation. Following his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, Kington proposes crazier and crazier ideas for his next book (what he calls "cashing in on cancer") in a series of letters to his literary agent, Gill. And what sort of things capture Kington's attention in his waning months? The sudden grimness of those 1,000 Places to See Before You Die books, for example. (What about 100 Things to Do Before You Die, Without Leaving Home?, he suggests. Instead of bungee jumping and whitewater rafting, learn to whistle with two fingers in your mouth, yodel, or steam open envelopes.) The irony that his dog, Berry, will probably outlive him, or the semi-outrageous idea of creating a funeral video: The answer is quite simple. Make a video in advance of my farewell speech, to be shown on a monitor, from the pulpit, or on a screen behind the stage, or wherever the best place would be. I have already visualised the opening shot. It is of me, smiling ruefully, and saying to camera: "Hello. I'm sorry I couldn't be here in person with you today." Mischievous and utterly original, Miles Kington's words in the face of death are memorable and surprisingly uplifting.
From the author of the definitive biography of Frank Sinatra, the story of how jazz arrived at the pinnacle of American culture in 1959, told through the journey of three towering artists—Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans—who came together to create the most iconic jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue The myth of the ’60s depends on the 1950s being the “before times” of conformity, segregation, straightness—The Lonely Crowd and The Organization Man. This all carries some truth, but it does nothing to explain how, in 1959, America’s great indigenous art form, jazz, reached the height of its power and popularity, thanks to a number of Black geniuses so legendary they go by one name—Monk, Mingus, Rollins, Coltrane, and, above all, Miles. Nineteen fifty-nine saw Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, and more come together to record what is widely considered the greatest jazz album of all time, and certainly the bestselling: Kind of Blue. 3 Shades of Blue is James Kaplan’s magnificent account of the paths of the three giants to the mountaintop of 1959 and beyond. It’s a book about music, and business, and race, and heroin, and the towns that gave jazz its home, from New Orleans and New York to Kansas City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and LA. It’s an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange hothouses that can produce its full flowering. It’s a book about the great forebears of this golden age, particularly Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and the disrupters, like Ornette Coleman, who would take the music down truly new paths. And it’s about why the world of jazz most people know is a museum to this never-replicated period. But above all, 3 Shades of Blue is a book about three very different men—their struggles, their choices, their tragedies, their greatness. Bill Evans had a gruesome downward spiral; John Coltrane took the mystic’s path into a space far away from mainstream concerns. Miles had three or four sea changes in him before the end. The tapestry of their lives is, in Kaplan’s hands, an American odyssey with no direction home. It is also a masterpiece, a book about jazz that is as big as America.
A laugh-out-loud account of one woman's journey to the brink of middle age as she discovers her new place in the grand scheme of things Is there an invisible line we cross at a certain age when we become 'un-chat-up-able' and become someone's mum? When do barmen and supermarket check-out operators start calling us 'madam' and why do some women have the unnatural urge to cut their own hair with nail scissors or run away to Buddhist retreats when they hit forty?In this hilarious collection of stories from the brink of middle age, Kerre shares her insights into what makes us tick as women 'of a certain age'. topics explored include: coping with the empty nest; shoes, shoes and other indulgences; when is it futile to dress to impress?; is there such a thing as a female mid-life crisis?; and many more.told in Kerre's frank and self-deprecating style, this is a hilarious account of living life to the fullest - no matter what your age.
Continues the walking journey of Alan Christoffersen and recounts more of the experiences of betrayal and tragic loss that motivated his travels.
How do you like to go up in a swing? Beautiful illustrations by Julie Morstad bring new delight to this classic poem.
Salty air, low lying clouds, and crooning of seagulls near the towering Astoria Column and the flowing Columbia River set the scene for Humanity's Grace, a collection of linked short stories. Frank, Anne, Monica, and Sarah all reappear from the pages of Montgomery's novel, Beyond the Ripples. New characters: An elderly mother and her son, a police office and spouse, a childhood friend, a counselor, a bystander appear, are all uniquely connected to a murder in downtown Astoria, Oregon. Frank's untimely death creates a spectrum of consequences for his loved ones, acquaintances, and strangers. The ensuing murder accusation throws a trio of characters into darkness, as they reassess earlier beliefs, past decisions and actions. Other characters are impacted in unique and unexpected ways. A police officer is haunted by his past. A young woman awakens from a vivid dream of a friend from before. A mother wonders what she did wrong. A son aches for others to be kind. A daughter questions her father's past, while her mother remembers parts of the man she had forgotten. A stranger ponders the significance of a message she's received. The characters in Humanity's Grace intertwine as they laugh, scream, and cry, do good or create evil. Most of all, they meander through sorrow and sadness, joy and regret, as they remind the reader of the startling and collective beauty of life's connections.
T. S. Eliot's timeless modernist masterpiece, visually reimagined This fully illustrated book explores Eliot's themes of indecision and isolation, as well the overwhelming desire for connection, an often overlooked element of the poem. Printed on beautiful matte paper, this petite gift book is perfect for poetry and art lovers alike. The Obvious State Classics Collection is an evolving series of visually reimagined beloved works that speaks to contemporary readers. The pocket-sized, collectable editions feature the selected works of celebrated authors such as T. S. Eliot, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Sara Teasdale and Henry David Thoreau.
"I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to." And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of smiling village where the movies from his youth were set. Instead he drove through a series of horrific burgs, which he renamed Smellville, Fartville, Coleslaw, Coma, and Doldrum. At best his search led him to Anywhere, USA, a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by obese and slow-witted hicks with a partiality for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost: lost to itself because he found it blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country.