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Make no mistake: Our founding fathers were more bandanas-and-muscles than powdered-wigs-and-tea. As a prisoner of war, Andrew Jackson walked several miles barefoot across state lines while suffering from smallpox and a serious head wound received when he refused to polish the boots of the soldiers who had taken him captive. He was thirteen years old. A few decades later, he became the first popularly elected president and served the nation, pausing briefly only to beat a would-be assassin with a cane to within an inch of his life. Theodore Roosevelt had asthma, was blind in one eye, survived multiple gunshot wounds, had only one regret (that there were no wars to fight under his presidency),...
Draft your own presidential fantasy team, based on these hilarious-but-true profiles of our past leaders, in this fun and funny illustrated book perfect for fans of How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous and Kid Presidents! What if a zombie apocalypse or a robot uprising threatened the nation and you had the power to recruit some of the nation’s finest presidents to help save the day? By studying the most successful squads in history, Daniel O’Brien has identified the perfect ingredients for a victorious team. Which president would you choose for: the Brain, the Brawn, the Moral Compass, the Loose Cannon, and the Roosevelt? Choose wisely—the fate of the world is in your...
Jimmy, an introspective and world-traveled social studies teacher, lives a quiet life working in a Minnesota high school. Having lived in Japan for several decades—a country that he considers his second home—he is caught off-guard by the ancient and unfinished legacy that has followed him back across the Pacific. As the sun sets, Jimmy begins to see strange events in his home: a disembodied hand in the moonlight, then the full apparition of a Japanese woman in traditional kimono. Despite being separated by the boundaries of time and space, life and death, Jimmy and the mysterious woman discover a karmic connection. Together, they search for the root of her eternal restlessness in the hopes of attaining her redemption. Jimmy must unravel her past to discover how their destinies are intertwined, and how they might heal one another.
The future of smart cities has arrived, courtesy of citizens and their phones. To prove it, Daniel T. O’Brien explains the transformative insights gleaned from years researching Boston’s 311 reporting system, a sophisticated city management tool that has revolutionized how ordinary Bostonians use and maintain public spaces. Through its phone service, mobile app, website, and Twitter account, 311 catalogues complaints about potholes, broken street lights, graffiti, litter, vandalism, and other issues that are no one citizen’s responsibility but affect everyone’s quality of life. The Urban Commons offers a pioneering model of what modern digital data and technology can do for cities li...
For twenty years Dan O’Brien struggled to make ends meet on his cattle ranch in South Dakota. But when a neighbor invited him to lend a hand at the annual buffalo roundup, O’Brien was inspired to convert his own ranch, the Broken Heart, to buffalo. Starting with thirteen calves, “short-necked, golden balls of wool,” O’Brien embarked on a journey that returned buffalo to his land for the first time in more than a century and a half. Buffalo for the Broken Heart is at once a tender account of the buffaloes’ first seasons on the ranch and an engaging lesson in wildlife ecology. Whether he’s describing the grazing pattern of the buffalo, the thrill of watching a falcon home in on its prey, or the comical spectacle of a buffalo bull wallowing in the mud, O’Brien combines a novelist’s eye for detail with a naturalist’s understanding to create an enriching, entertaining narrative.
Born in Cleveland in 1968, Halley Berry first gained the public’s attention in 1986 as a runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant. When she turned to acting, her career took off with a key role in Spike Lee’s 1991 film Jungle Fever. It wasn’t until 1999, however, with her Golden Globe-winning performance in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, that she began to make a real impact in the film world. In 2001, she was cast in the smash-hit X-Men, and in 2002, she delivered her extraordinary, Oscar-winning performance in Monster’s Ball. Berry next crossed paths with Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond extravaganza Die Another Day. In this book, Daniel O’ Brien gives us a fascinating glimpse of an actress on her way to the top. The author’s most recent books are The Hannibal Files and Cameron Diaz.
Few careers in Hollywood can match the highs and lows of Robert Altman's. In the past several years, The Player, and Short Cuts especially have seen the director - who has been written off time and again - emerge as a major creative force. (Critical reception of Ready to Wear, his latest film, also fits the pattern of Altman's career.). O'Brien explores the causes for Altman's rise and fall from critical acclaim, as well as the director's unconventional attitudes to the film-making process, which may have left him better equipped than many to adjust to the bitter realities of the Hollywood film industry. He is a true Hollywood survivor. Altman's comeback in the 1990s, and the accompanying reappraisal of his earlier work, is fully discussed and documented, right up to the present. By exploring a rich and varied career, this book reveals Robert Altman's unique position in American culture and world cinema.
Meet Lil' Miss Sugarcane, a little girl with the soul of Carnival running through her veins. She wants nothing more than to be the best Midnight Robber around. With her robber's rhyme, she will tell her origin story as only she can! Witness a determined little girl and her family encounter hurdles along the way and conquer them together! As Lil' Miss Sugarcane works to carve out her individual identity, will she become the BIGGEST BADDEST Midnight Robber there ever was?
Have you ever wanted to disappear? Daniel Hand disappeared, but he left behind some clues: a note, some video artwork, and a school full of conflicting impressions and theories. When Shannon, an aspiring filmmaker, starts shooting a documentary about the enigma of her missing classmate, she learns he was an athlete, honors student, artist, drug user, and perhaps a religious fanatic. Can she believe all the labels the other students are trying to slap on him? Is Daniel, Shannon, or anyone what everyone perceives them to be?