Damn Every Thing But the Circus


Book Description

The gaiety, the spirit, the excitement that is the circus is here in a tumble of exquisite color and design created by the celebrated artist Corita Kent.




I


Book Description

In this lecture series, American poet and writer E.E. Cummings discusses his life and work on a personal level. He concludes each lecture with a poetry reading lasting about fifteen minutes. He reads mostly works of other poets.




The Emerald Circus


Book Description

2018 World Fantasy Award winner “The best book I’ve read in a long time.” —Brandon Sanderson, author of Mistborn Where is Wendy? Leading a labor strike against the Lost Boys, of course. In Jane Yolen’s first full collection in more than ten years discover new and uncollected tales of beloved characters, literary legends, and much more. A Scottish academic unearths ancient evil in a fishing village. Edgar Allan Poe’s young bride is beguiled by a most unusual bird. Dorothy, lifted from Kansas, returns as a gymnastic sophisticate. Emily Dickinson dwells in possibility and sails away in a starship made of light. Alice’s wicked nemesis has jaws and claws but really needs a sense of humor. Enter the Emerald Circus and be astonished by the transformations within. -- Jane Yolen




Stagehand


Book Description

If you had asked me two years ago where I would be, living on a space ship on the dark side of the moon, learning how to run an alien circus was not in the top one hundred. It wasn't even in the top one million. If you had told me that this was going to happen and that I was going to be living with a whole plethora of sexy aliens and getting to know my three paternal grandfathers, I would have asked what weed you were smoking, and where I could get some from. If you had said that my stash of tentacle porn erotic novels may be a good precursor for my future sex life I would have asked you which loony bin you had escaped from. Yet here I am and all of the above has occurred Now I think I'm either committed to a looney bin and suffering a psychotic break myself or my life really is out of this world.




My Life Under the Big Top


Book Description

In his book, My Life Under the Big Top, the Rev. David Fly shares his lifes journey as a standup comedian, a professional television clown, and an Episcopal priest. The three roles became increasingly intertwined throughout his life. The big top of the circus came to represent for him the church with its sense of wonder and mysterya world from which no one is excluded. The role of the clown and the Christian is to play Stan Laurel to the worlds Oliver Hardy, exposing the folly of pretense and the vanity of pride. The book is both a memoir and a theological reflection.




Him


Book Description

Him can be called one of the first successful attempts of Theatre of the Absurd, and thus lacks plot in the traditional sense. The first scene depicts a painted backdrop of a doctor anaesthetizing a woman with two face holes, in which are Me and The Doctor; facing this are three figures knitting in rocking chairs and having absurd conversations. This type of scene happens six times during the play, always following or preceded by scenes in the "room". The room scenes feature Me and Him conversing. The second act of Him features nine scenes from the play Him is writing. The final act returns to scenes in the "room" and the Weirds scenes but also adds in a scene in a Parisian restaurant and a scene at a freak show, the latter of which ends by revealing the ninth freak to be Me holding a baby. The play ends with Me breaking the fourth wall quite literally by revealing that the fourth wall of Me and Him's living room is not real. Me says that she can see people "pretending that this room and [Him and Me] are real". Him cannot believe what she is saying, although he wishes he could.




Inside Team Sky


Book Description

The inside story of Team Sky's challenge for the 2013 Tour de France. After the victory of Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky in the 2012 Tour de France, the pressure was on the team to repeat their success in 2013. When Wiggins had to pull out of the defence of his yellow jersey, attention moved to Chris Froome, who had finished as runner-up the year before. Could he bring about back-to-back victories for the UK and for Team Sky? With team principal Sir Dave Brailsford at the helm, the levels of expectation were high. Nothing less than a win would do. Embedded within the team was top sportswriter David Walsh, who had been covering the sport for four decades. The Sunday Times writer had done more than any other journalist to reveal the lies of Lance Armstrong, he has the reputation for exposing the dark secrets that cycling would want to keep hidden. His inside story, from how Team Sky prepared for the Tour de France through to Froome's emphatic victory, is supported by insights from all the key members of the team, and provides a definitive account of a dramatic race that gripped cycling fans around the world.




Inside Your Customer's Imagination


Book Description

“Chip Bell's unique perspective, lively illustrations, and practical advice result in one terrific resource for anyone eager to tap a customer's ingenuity for creating breakthrough results.” —Jeanne Bliss, founder and CEO, CustomerBliss; and cofounder, Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) Organizations need to offer customers breakthrough products, services, and solutions to effectively compete in today's innovation-hungry economy. The challenge is customers often don't know precisely what they want. As Henry Ford is reputed to have said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." To surprise and awe your customers, Chip Bell advises developing co-creation partnerships with them. Co-creation partnerships are about fulfilling customers' hopes and aspirations, not just their needs and expectations. Co-creation partnerships require (1) curiosity that uncovers insight, (2) grounding that promotes clear focus, (3) discovery that fosters risk-taking, (4) trust that safeguards partnership purity, and (5) passion that inspires energized generosity. Using examples from organizations like McDonald's, DHL, Marriott, Lockheed Martin, Discover Financial, Ultimate Software, and many more, Bell shows how co-creation partnerships enable you to tap into the treasure trove of ideas, ingenuity, and genius-in-the-raw within every customer.




The Big Book of Duh


Book Description

If you are stupid, then you're too dumb to know it. If you're smart, then you are no doubt smart enough to doubt yourself. --Bob Fenster The Big Book of Duh! is the perfect read regardless of where you happen to be sitting--think Uncle John's Bathroom Reader meets The Darwin Awards (without any of the dreary dead stuff). Proving there is a lot of reading going on in suburbia's smallest room, more than 1.5 million copies of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader have been sold since its first publication in 1988. As the new water-closet contender, Bob Fenster continues his romp into areas of idiot intrigue by chronicling the folly and reckless abandon of the human race. * Covering such topics as My Favorite Morons, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, The Surprising Things People Don't Know, and Dumb Plays in the Face of Fate, this compendium chronicles the densely inept and decidedly ignorant. * Featuring outrageous new stories plus the best material from the previous Duh! books, this compilation is the ultimate collection of human stupidity.




Instant Genius: Smart Mouths


Book Description

The smartest and funniest quotations of all time, artfully arranged into witty—and surprising—categories. Every page will entertain, educate, and delight. Uncle John’s dedicated team of quotationeers have scoured the worlds of entertainment, history, literature, politics, sports, and more to bring you this unique collection of utterances that bear repeating. From silly to profound, from Aristotle to Mr. T, you’ll discover insights on such topics as love, sex, conspiracies, boredom, cheese, juggling, and the true meaning of belly-button lint. Here are but a few of the thousands of morsels awaiting you: “Weaseling out of things is good. It’s what separates us from the other animals . . . except the weasel.” —Homer Simpson “All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity.” —Gordie Howe “In America, sex is an obsession. In other parts of the world, it’s a fact.” —Marlene Dietrich “With my sunglasses on, I’m Jack Nicholson. Without them, I’m fat and sixty.” —Jack Nicholson “It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase ‘as pretty as an airport’ appear.” —Douglas Adams “If it’s called USA Today, why is all the news from yesterday? Bam! Busted!” —Stephen Colbert “Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.” —Phyllis Diller