![]() ![]() ![]() Every batter in the lineup can crack homers and knows their launch angles. ![]() Seemingly every pitcher now throws mid-90s heat and studiously compares their mechanics against the ideal. Over the past twenty years, power and analytics have taken over the game, driving carefully calibrated teams like the Astros to victory. Though this was only one regular season game, the match-up of these two teams demonstrated how Major League Baseball has changed since the early days of Athletics general manager Billy Beane and the publication of Michael Lewis’ classic book. On September 8, 2017, the Oakland A’s faced off against the Houston Astros in a game that would signal the passing of the Moneyball mantle. The former ESPN columnist and analytics pioneer dramatically recreates an action-packed 2017 game between the Oakland A’s and eventual World Series Champion Houston Astros to reveal the myriad ways in which Major League Baseball has changed over the last few decades. “Winner of the 2018 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year.” ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() In the background you can hear violin and cello music kicking up a melancholic din. He makes his way to Ethan Carter's house, navigating an ominous grey forest agitated by the wind. "Death is imprinted in the world," Chmielarz explains, and Prospero can sense it. The police couldn't help, but Prospero will, because he can feel the darkness already. The main character is Paul Prospero, a private investigator looking into the mysterious disappearance of Ethan Carter, a boy who wrote to him - a boy who sees things other people don't, and shouldn't. I get to see this in action in an early demo, which begins in a forest. "In most horror games when there's evil, the evil is after your flesh," he tells me. For his studio's first release, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, former People Can Fly creative director Adrian Chmielarz is betting that they mesh particularly well in a video game, and that this combination captures the imagination more effectively than mere jump scares. ![]() There are plenty of great horror stories in the world and there is no shortage of great detective fiction out there either, but for some the two go best hand in hand. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In fact, when you read a sentence like that one at the beginning of a book, you should know not to continue reading. This sort of behavior – using hooks to start books – is inexcusable. “So, there I was, tied to an altar made from outdated encyclopedias, about to get sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of evil Librarians.” You remember that one, don’t you? Just in case you’ve forgotten, I believe it said: The one at the end of the previous chapter is entirely different from the hook I used at the beginning of the book. This time, at least, I plan to make good on the cliff-hanger. These sorts of things force you, the reader, to keep on plunging through my story. One of the ways I do this is by leaving cliff-hangers at the ends of chapters. I’ve worked very hard – perhaps I will explain why later – to frustrate you. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Thus, God is tenderly affected toward Himself as the highest good, and constantly wills Himself to be most blessed, glorious and happy! Most often, however, Scripture speaks of the mercy of God that He shows to His people who are in the midst of sin, misery, and woe. ![]() God is the Father of mercy and is rich in mercy toward Himself. If we review the occurrences of this word in the bible, we see, first, that mercy is an attribute of God within Himself without regard to the creature. Amazingly the prophet sings a song that extols the mercy of God even as he sits amongst the ashes of the holy city! Here, as elsewhere in Scripture, divine mercy stands closely related to God's pity, compassion, tenderness, and lovingkindness. Jeremiah and a few other elderly people have been left behind. The time or setting in which Jeremiah penned the words of this passage is immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and his powerful army. they arenew every morning: great is Thy faithfulness." Lamentations 3:21-22 "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassion fails not. ![]() ![]() ![]() Set in both London and Perth, a courtroom drama and a road trip in the searing heat of the West Australian desert, Release is the story of two people confronting each other, each intent on destruction and survival. What is the legacy of this coercive relationship? Who holds the cards now? In the confusion of past and present, will Kate remain trapped in a deranged dance of desire and revenge? Or will she regain control and find release? Now her name is Kate Stone and it’s her turn to confront Ty and try to find answers to the questions that have obsessed her since her ordeal. ![]() Ten years ago, sixteen-year-old Gemma Toombs was kidnapped from Bangkok Airport by an infatuated drifter, Tyler MacFarlane, who took her to a secret den in the Australian desert. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() “Each drawing is considered not in itself, but in relationship to the rest of the book,” he explained, while keeping in mind “drama, continuity, contrast, and mood.” His preferred format was the horizontal double-page spread, which freed him to alternate close-up scenes with panoramic views. He was often more intent on capturing a mood than developing a plot. Inspired by Asian art and haiku poetry, Keats used lush color in his paintings and collages and strove for simplicity in his texts. “If,” he once remarked, “we all could really see (‘see’ as perceive, understand, discover) each other exactly as the other is, this would be a different world.” Through his picture books a visit to Keats’ neighborhood is restorative: Peter and his friends remind us of the simple joy of being alive. ![]() Yet his work transcends the personal and reflects the universal concerns of children. Keats’s experience of anti-Semitism and poverty in his youth gave him a lifelong sympathy for others who suffered prejudice and want. Primarily self-taught, he drew upon memories of growing up in East New York, one of the most deprived neighborhoods in the city. His parents were Eastern European Jewish immigrants and very poor. The author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats was born Jacob Ezra Katz in Brooklyn in 1916. ![]() ![]() "Underwater noise in the ocean is a big, big problem and it's growing," she says. She also details the threats the animals face from man-made sounds in the ocean. In her book, Voices in the Ocean, Casey describes the world of dolphins and addresses the myth that dolphins have healing powers. "And she was very close to dead, but she wasn't dead. "In the center of the circle there was a young girl floating with a suicide note," Casey says. He followed them and found that the dolphins had formed a circle. Writer Susan Casey tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies about an instance in which a scientist who was watching dolphins hunt noticed that they suddenly bolted for deeper water. ![]() Famous for their intelligence and physical ability, there have been reports that the marine mammals have come to the rescue of humans at sea. ![]() "Anytime you're in the wild with a beautiful animal you're going to feel good," says Susan Casey, author of Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins.ĭolphins tend to strike a deep emotional chord in many people who encounter them. ![]() ![]() ![]() This novel sowed the seeds of Rand’s famous Objectivism philosophy and presented the idea that man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress. The Fountainhead tells the tale of Howard Roark, the extremely uncompromising young architect of Dominique Francon, an exquisitely beautiful woman who marries his worst enemy despite loving Howard passionately and of the society who tries to bring him down. Reader, it’s The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – a novel that I see the timelessness of even though it’s not for me. Now, one might ask, “Emily, what is this book in question?” Today’s subject was a challenge because it came with plenty of baggage, and it still has a following even in the nearly eighty years since its publication in 1943. ![]() This has helped me tremendously to see the many facets of the novel in question and to be as neutral as possible. Ever since I reviewed Rain is Not My Indian Nameby Cynthia Leitich Smith, I’ve been lowering my expectations when going into a new book. ![]() ![]() ![]() The worldwide group was formed following News Corp's 1990 acquisition of William Collins & Sons. In 1987, Harper & Row, as it had then become, was acquired by News Corporation. The original Harper Brothers Company was established in New York City in 1817 and over the years published the works of Mark Twain, the Bronte Sisters, Thackeray, Dickens, John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. In the UK, the Glasgow-based William Collins & Sons was founded in 1819 and published a range of bibles, atlases and dictionaries, later including classic authors HG Wells, Agatha Christie, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. With a heritage stretching back nearly 200 years, HarperCollins is one of the world's foremost English-language publishers, offering the best quality content right across the spectrum, from cutting-edge contemporary fiction to digital hymnbooks and pretty much everything in between. ![]() ![]() However, both struggle with similar problems throughout Mock’s childhood and adolescence, including relationships, drug abuse, and financial hardships. Mock’s parents divorce when she is young as a result of her father’s infidelity and her mother’s suicide attempt. More than anything, Redefining Realness is a story of survival, as Mock must overcome a variety of external and internal hardships. The memoir itself only chronicles the first part of her life, as she begins to understand and grapple with her burgeoning identity. She falls in love with a man and finds the strength to disclose previously guarded secrets. She moves to New York and finds academic and professional success, although she keeps her past a secret. ![]() She begins transitioning during high school, eventually flying by herself to Thailand for sex reassignment surgery when she is eighteen years old. In the 1990s, Mock grew up as the firstborn son of an economically-disadvantaged, multicultural family. ![]() |