Why We Play


Book Description

Play is one of humanity's straightforward yet deceitful ideas: though the notion is unanimously agreed upon to be universal, used for man and animal alike, nothing defines what all its manifestations share, from childish playtime to on stage drama, from sporting events to market speculation. Within the author's anthropological field of work (Mongolia and Siberia), playing holds a core position: national holidays are called "Games," echoing in that way the circus games in Ancient Rome and today's Olympics. These games convey ethical values and local identity. Roberte Hamayon bases her analysis of the playing spectrum on their scrutiny. Starting from fighting and dancing, encompassing learning, interaction, emotion and strategy, this study heads towards luck and belief as well as the ambiguity of the relation to fiction and reality. It closes by indicating two features of play: its margin and its metaphorical structure. Ultimately revealing its consistency and coherence, the author displays play as a modality of action of its own. "Playing is no 'doing' in the ordinary sense" once wrote Johan Huizinga. Isn't playing doing something else, elswhere and otherwise ?




We Play Ourselves


Book Description

After a humiliating scandal, a young writer flees to the West Coast, where she is drawn into the morally ambiguous orbit of a charismatic filmmaker and the teenage girls who are her next subjects. FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD • ONE OF BUZZFEED’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • “A blistering story about the costs of creating art.”—O: The Oprah Magazine Not too long ago, Cass was a promising young playwright in New York, hailed as “a fierce new voice” and “queer, feminist, and ready to spill the tea.” But at the height of all this attention, Cass finds herself at the center of a searing public shaming, and flees to Los Angeles to escape—and reinvent herself. There she meets her next-door neighbor Caroline, a magnetic filmmaker on the rise, as well as the pack of teenage girls who hang around her house. They are the subjects of Caroline’s next semidocumentary movie, which follows the girls’ clandestine activity: a Fight Club inspired by the violent classic. As Cass is drawn into the film’s orbit, she is awed by Caroline’s ambition and confidence. But over time, she becomes troubled by how deeply Caroline is manipulating the teens in the name of art—especially as the consequences become increasingly disturbing. With her past proving hard to shake and her future one she’s no longer sure she wants, Cass is forced to reckon with her own ambitions and confront what she has come to believe about the steep price of success.




We All Play


Book Description

A BEST CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times, Washington Post, New York Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, Globe and Mail, Horn Book, and Boston Globe STARRED Reviews in Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, The Horn Book, School Library Journal A 2022 Best Book for Babies From Julie Flett, the beloved author and illustrator of Birdsong, comes a joyous new book about playtime for babies, toddlers, and kids up to age 7. Animals and kids love to play! This wonderful book celebrates playtime and the connection between children and the natural world. Beautiful illustrations show: birds who chase and chirp! bears who wiggle and wobble! whales who swim and squirt! owls who peek and peep! and a diverse group of kids who love to do the same, shouting: We play too! / kimêtawânaw mîna At the end of the book, animals and children gently fall asleep after a fun day of playing outside, making this book a great bedtime story. A beautiful ode to the animals and humans we share our world with, We All Play belongs on every bookshelf. This book also includes: A glossary of Cree words for wild animals in the book A pronunciation guide and link to audio pronunciation recordings




We Play a Game


Book Description

The 112th volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets explores the Vietnamese-American experience




United We Play


Book Description

United We Play - A book about disabilities for children, parents and teachers . Our differences should not divide us. This book educates children, parents and teachers about different disabilities that affect real children and how we can ensure they are always included, because play unites us. All Profits from sale of the book will all go to 'Join Our Boys Trust'. The trust was set up to support 3 young brothers living in Ireland, Archie, George and Isaac. In 2012 all 3 boys were diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The boys are all now wheelchair users, Duchenne sufferers have an average life expectancy of 26. Their story is devastating and the aim of this book is to help the family in achieving their goal of raising e400,000 to build a special purpose home for the boys, who lose mobility every day. More information is available on www.Joinourboys.org




This Game We Play


Book Description

Young and successful, Alexandria Witt, has found herself in a world full of drama. Heartbroken and lost from her previous relationship with Brandon Taylor, she only has her friends to look to for guidance. Yet her friends may be leading her down the wrong path. Even though she has her doubts, she attempts to piece together her heart with the charming Nicholas Bennett, hoping this time she hasn't made a mistake. But Brandon refuses to give up on Alexandria. Of course they’ve had their ups and downs but, what relationship hasn’t? Is what he has done really that unforgivable? He feels he has no choice but to show Alexandria they belong together no matter the risk. Despite what his homeboy, Vonte Johnson, thinks he has to win her love back. However, Brandon has no limits and even wonders to himself just how far he will go. When Vonte sees how ridiculous his homeboy is being, he feels the need to protect Alexandria...after all, the way he sees it Alexandria should belong to him. Soon he befriends her and warns her of Brandon's crazy way in hopes to get Brandon out of the picture and take his rightful place and have his chance at love.




We Play On


Book Description

'A gripping account of how Shakhtar Donetsk came to represent embattled Ukraine's hopes for the future' Sunday Times 'We want to show to the world that we are alive. That we are strong. Not just us - the whole of Ukraine. We are continuing to play. We are continuing to win.' Darijo Srna 'Excellent ... a symbol of Ukrainian resistance' Ada Wordsworth Shakhtar Donetsk have not played in their home stadium since 2014. Their matchdays now typically have no crowds, air raid sirens interrupt games and thoughts of and fears for family, friends and hometowns frontline troops loom large in the players' minds ahead of every game. These are extraordinary times - but Shakhtar is an extraordinary club. Displaced when fighting first began in the Donbas region, and then again when Russia mounted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, this book honours a club - players, coaching staff, management - who choose to play on. In a time of chaos and conflict, they have become emblems of hope and unity. They are winning on the pitch, and winning hearts and minds across the world. Following the club's meteoric rise from domestic team to domineering European contenders, Andy Brassell expertly weaves a story of Shakhtar through the ages - their origin story after Ukrainian independence, their evolution and their reinvention. The war forced an exodus of star players and staff and the club has had to find itself once again. With direct testimony and exclusive interviews from those at Shakhtar, this book delivers unparalleled insight to the club's journey - one that is all too often hidden from view. The result is an ode to Shakhtar Donetsk, shining a light on the beauty and force of their football and their fight to play on.




Why We Play With Fire


Book Description

In a thrilling journey of self-discovery and magical intrigue, Thea finds herself transported to a house for the children of gods, where she must retrieve lost keys while navigating secrets, rival schools, and her own doubts, all before the shadow creatures catch up to her. Embark on a spellbinding odyssey of self-discovery, where Thea's extraordinary journey unfolds within a realm of enchantment and peril. Desperate to escape encroaching darkness, Thea is propelled through a mystical well by her mother and grandmother, left only with a cryptic mission to "retrieve the keys." However, her destination defies all expectations as she arrives at an extraordinary haven—a house known as Malachite. Within the hallowed halls of Malachite, Thea unveils a world far beyond her wildest imagination. Amidst an intricate tapestry of training and elusive artifacts, she discovers a mysterious box safeguarded by the students' within the home. But when the three keys that allow access to the box disappear, Thea's mixed-race ancestry and connection to two gods launch her on an all-consuming quest that awakens her to her divine lineage and an awe-inspiring destiny. Thea becomes determined to reclaim the keys before the approaching Winter Solstice, navigating treacherous rivalries and evading the clutches of the morally ambiguous Arcana—a competing school with nefarious intentions. When her comrades fall into captivity, and two keys remain lost, Thea must gain confidence in her new abilities and leadership role to see this through. Amidst the crumbling facade of deceit and the allure of Zero, the enigmatic Arcana prodigy, she must maintain focus, for time is dwindling, and the shadow creatures draw ever closer. As her parentage unravels and her nascent abilities blossom, Thea grapples with inner doubt and anxieties that threaten to shackle her potential. Will she rally her friends and harness her newfound powers to secure the keys' safe return? Or will her wavering confidence consign her to failure, succumbing to the clutches of the encroaching shadows? Join Thea on an electrifying adventure where the boundaries of magic and self-belief intertwine, and the fate of worlds rests upon her resilient shoulders.




Shall We Play That One Together?


Book Description

The life of the unparalleled purveyor of the Great American Songbook, Marian McPartland, is celebrated in this engrossing biography From Bobby Short to Esperanza Spalding, across the 33-year run of the acclaimed radio show Piano Jazz, Marian McPartland conversed and played piano duets with jazz greats and, via National Public Radio syndication, brought the best of jazz standards to listeners. In Shall We Play That One Together?, Paul de Barros considers McPartland's full life and shows her to have been a courageous compositional innovator as well as an immensely talented popularizer and educator. Her standing among jazz artists and her advocacy for women jazz musicians made McPartland a natural to host Piano Jazz show, conceived in 1978, and first broadcast on WLTR out of Columbia, South Carolina, in 1979. That show secured her reputation in the musical form and allowed her to introduce American and then global audiences to a diverse array of musicians developing the Great American Songbook.




Gods' Games We Play, Vol. 1 (light novel)


Book Description

Let the games begin! In their (overabundance of) free time, the gods grew bored and decided to create challenging battles of wits to spice things up! Their opponent? Humanity! A select few players called “apostles” meet the gods on the spiritual realm’s playing field to beat the deities at their own games. A former god named Leshea has woken after sleeping for thousands of years, and her first demand is to meet “this era’s very best player!” She is introduced to Fay, an acclaimed rookie apostle. Together, they plan to challenge the gods and win the ultimate prize, but no one in human history has managed to clear ten games—because the gods can be capricious, outrageous, and sometimes downright incomprehensible! In the face of absurdity, what can the apostles do but enjoy the contest to its fullest?