Danny Brown and the Big Surprise


Book Description

Danny's back! And he's in trouble with Granny - again! This time he has to keep Granny's secret until Mum's birthday, but Danny isn't very good at being good. When he's told that he can't let Keeno into his room, he decides to find another hiding place for the Big Surprise! Will this work? Can he keep the secret without getting into trouble? What do you think?




The Gay & Lesbian Theatrical Legacy


Book Description

Recovers the hidden history of theater professionals who transgressed the gendered expectations of their time




The Joe


Book Description

In December 1979, a Detroit tradition began when the Red Wings took the ice for the first time at their new riverfront home, Joe Louis Arena. Named after former heavyweight champion boxer Joe Louis, the stadium that became affectionately known as "The Joe" saw the renaissance of the Red Wings franchise, including four Stanley Cup championship seasons and a 25-year run of advancing to the playoffs. The Joe: Memories from the Heart of Hockeytown takes a look back at the storied history of Joe Louis Arena in this, its final year. The arena has witnessed many stories, recounted with admiration in The Joe. Red Wings greats from Gordie Howe to Steve Yzerman to Nicklas Lidstrom skated on The Joe's storied ice, and time-honored rivalries, such as those between the Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche, were played out in dramatic fashion. The stadium has spawned such personalities as Al the Zamboni driver, who twirls octopuses overhead, the Knitting Lady, the Guy in the Orange Hat, and Mo Cheese. The Joe also hosted a number of unforgettable non-hockey events, from Ronald Reagan's nomination at the 1980 Republican convention, to the start of Prince's Purple Rain tour in 1984, to N.W.A.'s controversial concert in 1989, to Bob Seger joining Kid Rock on stage during Super Bowl week in 2006. The Joe offers a comprehensive tribute in words and pictures to hockey's last old-time arena. Learn about the history of the Red Wings and The Joe and the unforgettable games played there, as well as a number of key events in Detroit's history. For anyone who has cheered on the Red Wings over the past three-plus decades, this book is not to be missed.




Manchild in the Promised Land


Book Description

Manchild in the Promised Landis indeed one of the most remarkable autobiographies of our time. This thinly fictionalized account of Claude Brown's childhood as a hardened, streetwise criminal trying to survive the toughest streets of Harlem has been heralded as the definitive account of everyday life for the first generation of African Americans raised in the Northern ghettos of the 1940s and 1950s. When the book was first published in 1965, it was praised for its realistic portrayal of Harlem - the children, young people, hardworking parents; the hustlers, drug dealers, prostitutes, and numbers runners; the police; the violence, sex, and humour. The book continues to resonate generations later, not only because of its fierce and dignified anger, not only because the struggles of urban youth are as deeply felt today as they were in Brown's time, but also because the book is affirmative and inspiring. Here is the story about the one who "made it," the boy who kept landing on his feet and became a man.




The Rose & the Briar


Book Description

Praised by Robbie Robertson of The Band as "a classic & a ticket to ride," The Rose & the Briar assembles an astonishing group of writers and artists: Paul Muldoon, Stanley Crouch, R. Crumb, Jon Langford of the Mekons, Sharyn McCrumb, Luc Sante, Joyce Carol Oates, Dave Marsh, and more than a dozen other novelists, essayists, performers, and critics; to explore the ineffable power of the American ballad. From "Barbara Allen" through "The Wreck of the Old 97" to contemporary ballads by Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, The Rose & the Briar is, as Geoffrey O'Brien hailed in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, "a book full of internal echoes and provocative coincidences," featuring "historical investigation, shamanistic trance-journey, memoir, novella and cartoon," where "names and costumes change, soldiers become cowboys, demon lovers become backwoods murderer; the voices are unmistakably distinct but they share a common ground."




Two Fer


Book Description

Nearly one hundred years after the famine in Ireland, twin boys were born in Ireland in a workhouse convent. One was adopted and was taken to America as an infant, and the other was placed with the mother’s sister, Bridgid. Bridgid and her husband, John Brown, lived on a small farm. The boy was raised by the Brown family and was given the name “Peter Brown.” Patrick and Teresa Prown, a family from the USA, had gone to Ireland, visited the convent and felt blessed to be able to adopt a baby boy. They named him “Peter Prown.” The Prown’s brought Peter back to their home in Bryn Mawr, USA. Peter Prown went to school in the United States and Peter Brown went to school in Ireland. Both boys often wondered to themselves if they would ever meet another close relative.




Listen to Punk Rock!


Book Description

Listen to Punk Rock! Exploring a Musical Genre discusses the evolution of punk from its inception in 1975 to the present, delving into the lasting impact of the genre throughout society today. Listen to Punk Rock! provides readers with a fuller picture of punk rock as an inclusive genre with continuing relevance. Organized in a roughly chronological manner, it starts with an introduction that explains the musical and cultural forces that shaped the punk genre. Next, 50 entries cover important punk bands and subgenres, noting female punk bands as well as bands of color. The final part of the book discusses how punk has influenced other musical genres and popular culture. The book will give those new to the genre an overview of important bands and products related to the movement in music, including publications, fashion, and films about punk rock. Notably, it pays special attention to diversity within the genre, discussing bands often overlooked or mentioned only in passing in most histories of the movement, which focus mainly on The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Ramones as the pioneers of punk.




The Stranded Tribe


Book Description

The Stranded Tribe is the neglected story of the Ulster Unionists who were compelled to become part of the new Catholic and Gaelic Irish Free State in 1922. It follows the lives of the Presbyterian working-class Vance family, especially the two sons, William and Jamie, in the turbulent period of Irish history between 1895 and 1923. They live and work in East Donegal where one becomes involved with a local Ulster Volunteer unit and the other becomes a local railway official. In 1914 William Vance responds to the Empires call to fight Germany and joins the Ulster Division. As a member of the 11th Inniskilling Fusiliers, he takes part in the unbelievable slaughter of the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Later, his brother joins the same regiment and is badly wounded during the Battle of Messines. Following a long recovery he takes on security work on the Donegal Railways and plays a significant part in trying to forestall guerrilla attacks by the IRA on its services. The brother of Jamies Catholic girlfriend is an IRA leader in Donegal. In the Civil War he is on the Anti-Treaty side and both he and Jamie are drawn into the conflict in West Fermanagh where the IRA invades Northern Irelands territory in an attempt to destabilise the six-county statelet. The Loyalists in the three mainly Nationalist and Catholic Ulster counties not included in the new Northern Ireland have most of their links with the UK broken and some of them suffer persecution. Death threats against Jamie Vance and his family force him to take a temporary job in Scotland. Here, he finds himself struggling against a desperate, high-level assassination plot which threatens to destroy the shaky relationship between Britain and the new Irish Free State which is struggling to rout the Irregular forces in Ireland. The book outlines the brutal struggle between the two conceptions of Ireland the nationalist Catholic and Gaelic one and the unionist pro-British and monarchical one. But it also takes some of the simplicity out of this division by showing the many variations on both sides. The great majority of the incidents in the book are based upon real events gleaned from books and newspapers of the period. Research for the book took five years as well as significant time in the area itself. The Stranded Tribe is not only about the drawing of a new boundary in Ireland between mainly Protestant and Catholic states. It is also about political, religious and community responses to a world facing unprecedented social and technological change.




Danny McGee Drinks the Sea


Book Description

A hilariously anarchic tale from the inimitable Andy Stanton, author of Mr Gum, and much loved illustrator Neal Layton. Can a boy drink the sea? Surely it's impossible! But Danny McGee does just that - and now he has his sights on other things. Soon he's swallowing trees, flies, fleas, peas, mountains ... where will it end?! Andy Stanton has won a string of awards for his Mr Gum books, including the Red House Children's Book Award, the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, and the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Book With Pictures. Neal Layton is the multi-award-winning illustrator of the Emily Brown books.




Brain-storm - When the Mind Becomes the Utimate Weapon


Book Description

Daniel Jefferies was always happy even though he led a challenging life. It was not so much that Danny was bothered by his troubles, rather life was hard on those who loved and cared about him. At a very young age it became clear that Danny was a special person. Whether that was special in a good way or special in a bad way was in the eye of the beholder. Danny was neither a square or round peg so he never fit into the spaces that were laid out for him. The only thing for sure was that Daniel Jefferies had an unmistakable effect on everyone around him. And since Danny was a happy person it made sense that he would make those around him feel better. But all that changed one day when researchers believed that they could harness his gift. In doing so they unwittingly unleashed Daniel Jefferies to become something that was not meant to be unleashed. Brain-Storm is a story so real that you wonder when, not if it is going to happen!