Night Work - The Sawchuk Poems

Celebrated sports writer Roger Kahn casts his gaze on the golden age of baseball, an unforgettable time when the game thrived as America's unrivaled national sport. The Era begins in 1947, with Jackie Robinson changing major league baseball forever by taking the field for the Dodgers. Dazzling, momentous events characterize the decade that followed-Robinson's amazing accomplishments; the explosion on the national scene of such soon-to-be legends as Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Bobby Thomson, Duke Snider, and Yogi Berra; Casey Stengel's crafty managing; the emergence of televised games; and the stunning success of the Yankees as they play in nine out of eleven World Series. The Era concludes with the relocation of the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, a move that shook the sport to its very roots.

Praise for Roger Kahn:

"As a kid, I loved sports first and writing second, and loved everything Roger Kahn wrote. As an adult, I love writing first and sports second, and love Roger Kahn even more."  --Pulitzer Prize winner, David Maraniss

"He can epitomize a player with a single swing of the pen." --Time magazine

"Roger Kahn is the best baseball writer in the business." --Stephen Jay Gould, New York Review of Books

"Kahn has the almost unfair gift of easy, graceful writing." --Boston Herald

“Beautiful…persons and events through the eyes of a sharp, articulate observer.”  –The New York Times

“No one else has written a piece so starling about the legend of Babe Ruth…After reading this book you will never feel the same about a lot of legends…A very special book…A book to treasure.” –Chicago Sun-Times

Robert Frost, Claudio Arrau, John Lardner, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Leo Durocher, Bobby Thomson, Al Rosen, Jascha Heifetz, and other heroic figures in their years of glory, in their times of trial. This is a book about people to be remembered, and what it was like in America at a very special time.

Praise for Roger Kahn:

"As a kid, I loved sports first and writing second, and loved everything Roger Kahn wrote. As an adult, I love writing first and sports second, and love Roger Kahn even more."  --Pulitzer Prize winner, David Maraniss

"He can epitomize a player with a single swing of the pen." --Time magazine

"Roger Kahn is the best baseball writer in the business." --Stephen Jay Gould, New York Review of Books

"Kahn has the almost unfair gift of easy, graceful writing." --Boston Herald

Aferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents at "the battle of Al-Ansakar Canal"-three minutes and forty-three seconds of intense warfare caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew-has transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America's most sought-after heroes. For the past two weeks, the Bush administration has sent them on a media-intensive nationwide Victory Tour to reinvigorate public support for the war. Now, on this chilly and rainy Thanksgiving, the Bravos are guests of America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys, slated to be part of the halftime show alongside the superstar pop group Destiny's Child.

Among the Bravos is the Silver Starwinning hero of Al-Ansakar Canal, Specialist William Lynn, a nineteen-year-old Texas native. Amid clamoring patriots sporting flag pins on their lapels and Support Our Troops bumper stickers on their cars, the Bravos are thrust into the company of the Cowboys' hard-nosed businessman/owner and his coterie of wealthy colleagues; a luscious born-again Cowboys cheerleader; a veteran Hollywood producer; and supersized pro players eager for a vicarious taste of war. Among these faces Billy sees those of his family-his worried sisters and broken father-and Shroom, the philosophical sergeant who opened Billy's mind and died in his arms at Al-Ansakar.

Over the course of this day, Billy will begin to understand difficult truths about himself, his country, his struggling family, and his brothers-in-arms-soldiers both dead and alive. In the final few hours before returning to Iraq, Billy will drink and brawl, yearn for home and mourn those missing, face a heart-wrenching decision, and discover pure love and a bitter wisdom far beyond his years.

Poignant, riotously funny, and exquisitely heartbreaking, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is a devastating portrait of our time, a searing and powerful novel that cements Ben Fountain's reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation.

THE STORY OF MISS MOPPET

The Story of Miss Moppet, together with The Story of A Fierce Bad Rabbit, were books intended especially for very young children and they were originally published in a pull-out concertina format. They were subsequently reissued as standard books however, since the long strip of pictures became damaged too easily. Beatrix Potter borrowed a kitten to draw for the illustrations of Miss Moppet and the kitten proved to be as mischievous as the character she was meant to portray. Beatrix called her "a most fearful pickle".

Suitable for very young children, this title recounts the tale of a pussy cat, Miss Moppet, chasing a mouse. It turns out to be a bit of a battle of wits, and who do you think will win?