Thin Ice

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Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 9780679769590
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (695 download)

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Book Synopsis Thin Ice by : Bruce McCall

Download or read book Thin Ice written by Bruce McCall and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1999-03 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: His skates were too small. Or they didn't match. Or they were that ultimate humiliation for a boy trying to play hockey--girls' white figure skates. Add to young Bruce McCall's shabby equipment his pencil-thin wrists, weak ankles, and, as he puts it, "a fruit bat's metabolism with a tree sloth's reflexes," and you'll understand why he failed so dismally in the cold, rough world of neighborhood hockey in Toronto. Bruce's catastrophic career as a rink rat epitomizes the youth he recounts in this funny, moving, sometimes disturbing memoir. In fact, Thin Ice examines a boyhood so filled with failure and disappointment that the comedy and insight its author/survivor wrests from it--like his subsequent career as one of America's most admired humorists and illustrators--seem like miracles. Bruce McCall's father, T.C., was an inaccessible tyrant. Bruce's mother, Peg, drank to blunt the effect of her husband's rages and to dodge the duties of taking care of six children. Still, Bruce did know some moments of pleasure as a child, especially in the small town of Simcoe, before T.C. moved his family to the dreary outskirts of Toronto: The Second World War offered its awesome matériel and its heroic men, milk bottles grew top hats of cream, and grapes hung free for the stealing in Mrs. Klein's backyard. But his parents' demons took their toll on Bruce, and the move to Toronto set the stage for academic and social disasters: He flunked out of high school and took dead-end graphic-design jobs, all the while envying the full-color culture and high-octane energy of Canada's muscular neighbor to the south. That envy, combined with Bruce's passion for reading and drawing--one of the few positive bequests from T.C. and Peg McCall--became his refuge and then his salvation. His precocious reverence for The New Yorker magazine led him to invent entire comic worlds of artistic and literary creation. Ultimately, he read, wrote, and drew himself out of pennilessness and despair. Bruce McCall may not have been destined to glide around Madison Square Garden holding the Stanley Cup aloft, but as Thin Ice demonstrates, perseverance and talent can turn crummy ice skates--and even dashed hopes--into dreams come true.

Marveltown

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Author :
Publisher : Farrar, Straus & Giroux (BYR)
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 42 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Marveltown by : Bruce McCall

Download or read book Marveltown written by Bruce McCall and published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (BYR). This book was released on 2008-09-30 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marveltown's adults are outstanding inventors, but when their best engineers create giant but stupid robots that threaten the town, it is the children's outrageous creations that save the day.

How Did I Get Here?

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Author :
Publisher : Signal
ISBN 13 : 0771057164
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis How Did I Get Here? by : Bruce McCall

Download or read book How Did I Get Here? written by Bruce McCall and published by Signal. This book was released on 2020-11-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From his hardscrabble post-World War II childhood and coming of age in Ontario to Mad Men-era New York City and the creative pinnacle of advertising, to the hallowed halls of Saturday Night Live and The New Yorker, Bruce McCall’s personal and creative journey is stunningly honest, bittersweet, and, above all, inspiring. Beloved for his strikingly original and wickedly perceptive New Yorker covers (77 to date), as well as his many Shouts and Murmurs, Bruce is a rare double threat as an artist and writer. A Toronto high school dropout who is self-taught in both disciplines, his artistic world has captured the imagination of a loyal fan base for over forty years. Pulling no punches, How Did I Get Here? chronicles the evolution of his artistic genius as well as his journey from gifted childhood scribbler to passionate automobile enthusiast, a hobby that took him to the heights of the Detroit and Manhattan advertising worlds. His long-held passion for drawing and writing, which mostly lay dormant during his Mad Men days, reemerged later in life as he left the realm of advertising for the world of arts and letters, most notably at the National Lampoon, as a writer for Saturday Night Live in its first incarnation, and then of course at The New Yorker, as well as other Conde Nast magazines, such as Vanity Fair. His is an unorthodox life and career path, traversing through worlds that have now become iconic, giving us rich first-hand insight into Bruce's unique creative development and process, and providing a rare window into both the highs and the lows that define an artist's career and life. With wit, candor, and cover illustrations showcasing Bruce's storied career, Bruce McCall’s memoir will charm his many fans and anyone who knows and loves the places and eras he describes so well.

Bruce McCall's Zany Afternoons

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780330269490
Total Pages : 125 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (694 download)

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Book Synopsis Bruce McCall's Zany Afternoons by : Bruce McCall

Download or read book Bruce McCall's Zany Afternoons written by Bruce McCall and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

50 Things to Do with a Book

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Author :
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061959103
Total Pages : 118 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (619 download)

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Book Synopsis 50 Things to Do with a Book by : Bruce McCall

Download or read book 50 Things to Do with a Book written by Bruce McCall and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world where reading is reportedly dead, renowned humorist, illustrator, and New Yorker contributor Bruce McCall offers 50 inventive, outlandish, and wickedly entertaining things to do with all those excess books in 50 Things to Do with a Book. From starting a band, building a stairway to paradise, and saving your town from a flood to improving your marriage, entertaining guests, or killing a mockingbird, the options presented in 50 Things to Do with a Book are brilliant, visionary, ironic, and absurd.

This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me)

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Author :
Publisher : Signal
ISBN 13 : 0771057121
Total Pages : 114 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me) by : Bruce McCall

Download or read book This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me) written by Bruce McCall and published by Signal. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it comes to the lifestyles of American Express Black Card holders, you'd never know we're in a recession. This Land Was Made For You and Me (But Mostly Me) is a hilarious catalog of the absurdly extravagant lifestyles, impossibly glamorous escapes, and pet projects of North America's one percenters. From fiberglass Baobab tree houses in the foothills of the Rockies with machine-gun ports at every level, to a four-star open-air restaurant precariously balanced atop the leafy rainforests of the Amazon basin, longtime friends and mutual fans McCall and Letterman have created an Architectural Digest-style satire of the (obscenely) rich and famous. Featuring beautiful hand-painted illustrations in McCall's inimitable style and the brilliantly caustic wit of both authors, This Land takes you on a dizzying tour of vacation homes and resorts at once utterly ridiculous and eerily plausible.

The Steps Across the Water

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Author :
Publisher : Doubleday Canada
ISBN 13 : 0385669968
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (856 download)

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Book Synopsis The Steps Across the Water by : Adam Gopnik

Download or read book The Steps Across the Water written by Adam Gopnik and published by Doubleday Canada. This book was released on 2010-10-19 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young Rose discovers magical glass steps in New York's Central Park that lead to the fantastic city of U Nork, whose residents have been awaiting the arrival of the only person who can save them.

All Meat Looks Like South America

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Author :
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis All Meat Looks Like South America by : Bruce McCall

Download or read book All Meat Looks Like South America written by Bruce McCall and published by Crown. This book was released on 2003 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

A Futile and Stupid Gesture

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Author :
Publisher : Chicago Review Press
ISBN 13 : 1556526024
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (565 download)

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Book Synopsis A Futile and Stupid Gesture by : Josh Karp

Download or read book A Futile and Stupid Gesture written by Josh Karp and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ultimate biography of "National Lampoon" and its cofounder Doug Kenney, this book offers the first complete history of the immensely popular magazine and its brilliant and eccentric characters.

The Right Attitude to Rain

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Author :
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0375424628
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (754 download)

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Book Synopsis The Right Attitude to Rain by : Alexander McCall Smith

Download or read book The Right Attitude to Rain written by Alexander McCall Smith and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2006-09-19 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ISABEL DALHOUSIE - Book 3 Nothing captures the charm of Edinburgh like the bestselling Isabel Dalhousie series of novels featuring the insatiably curious philosopher and woman detective. Whether investigating a case or a problem of philosophy, the indefatigable Isabel Dalhousie, one of fiction’s most richly developed amateur detectives, is always ready to pursue the answers to all of life’s questions, large and small. The delectable third installment in the bestselling and already beloved adventures of Isabel Dalhousie and her no-nonsense housekeeper, Grace. When friends from Dallas arrive in Edinburgh and introduce Isabel to Tom Bruce – a bigwig at home in Texas – several confounding situations unfurl at once. Tom’s young fiancée’s roving eye leads Isabel to believe that money may be the root of her love for Tom. But what, Isabel wonders, is the root of the interest Tom begins to show for Isabel herself? And she can’t forget about her niece, Cat, who’s busy falling for a man whom Isabel suspects of being an incorrigible mama’s boy. Of course Grace and Isabel’s friend Jamie counsel Isabel to stay out of all of it, but there are irresistible philosophical issues at stake – when to tell the truth and when to keep one’s mouth shut, to be precise – and philosophical issues are meat and drink to Isabel Dalhousie, editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. In any case, she’s certain of the ethical basis for a little sleuthing now and again – especially when the problems involve matters of the heart.

The Age of Creativity

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Publisher : House of Anansi
ISBN 13 : 1487005326
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (87 download)

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Book Synopsis The Age of Creativity by : Emily Urquhart

Download or read book The Age of Creativity written by Emily Urquhart and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A moving portrait of a father and daughter relationship and a case for late-stage creativity from Emily Urquhart, the bestselling author of Beyond the Pale: Folklore, Family, and the Mystery of Our Hidden Genes. “The fundamental misunderstanding of our time is that we belong to one age group or another. We all grow old. There is no us and them. There was only ever an us.” — from The Age of Creativity It has long been thought that artistic output declines in old age. When Emily Urquhart and her family celebrated the eightieth birthday of her father, the illustrious painter Tony Urquhart, she found it remarkable that, although his pace had slowed, he was continuing his daily art practice of drawing, painting, and constructing large-scale sculptures, and was even innovating his style. Was he defying the odds, or is it possible that some assumptions about the elderly are flat-out wrong? After all, many well-known visual artists completed their best work in the last decade of their lives, Turner, Monet, and Cézanne among them. With the eye of a memoirist and the curiosity of a journalist, Urquhart began an investigation into late-stage creativity, asking: Is it possible that our best work is ahead of us? Is there an expiry date on creativity? Do we ever really know when we’ve done anything for the last time? The Age of Creativity is a graceful, intimate blend of research on ageing and creativity, including on progressive senior-led organizations, such as a home for elderly theatre performers and a gallery in New York City that only represents artists over sixty, and her experiences living and travelling with her father. Emily Urquhart reveals how creative work, both amateur and professional, sustains people in the third act of their lives, and tells a new story about the possibilities of elder-hood.

The World According to Bertie

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Author :
Publisher : Vintage Canada
ISBN 13 : 0307370348
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis The World According to Bertie by : Alexander McCall Smith

Download or read book The World According to Bertie written by Alexander McCall Smith and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2010-05-14 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 44 SCOTLAND STREET - Book 4 The residents and neighbors of 44 Scotland Street and the city of Edinburgh come to vivid life in these gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive serial novels, featuring six-year-old Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy—just ask his mother. There is never a quiet moment on 44 Scotland Street. In The World According to Bertie, Pat deals with the reappearance of Bruce, which has her heart skipping—and not in a pleasant way. Angus Lordie's dog Cyril has been taken away by the authorities, accused of being a serial biter. Unexpectedly, Domenica has offered to help free him. As usual, Big Lou is still looking for love, and handing out coffee and advice to the always contemplative Matthew. And Bertie, the beleaguered Italian-speaking six year old prodigy, now has a little brother, Ulysses, who Bertie hopes will help distract his pushy mother Irene. Beautifully observed, cleverly detailed, The World According to Bertie is classic McCall Smith and a treat for his avid fans as well as his first time readers.

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead

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Author :
Publisher : Abrams
ISBN 13 : 1683357671
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (833 download)

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Book Synopsis Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead by : Rick Meyerowitz

Download or read book Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead written by Rick Meyerowitz and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2019-03-15 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprints and reminiscences from the magazine’s first decade: “Fun to flip through . . . Where would American humor be without the National Lampoon?”—The New Yorker From its first issue in April 1970, the National Lampoon blazed like a comet, defining comedy as we know it today. To create Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, former Lampoon illustrator Rick Meyerowitz selected the funniest material from the magazine and sought out the survivors of its first electrifying decade to gather their most revealing and outrageous stories. The result is a mind-boggling tour through the early days of an institution whose alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture: Animal House, Caddyshack, Saturday Night Live, Ghostbusters, SCTV, Spinal Tap, In Living Color, Ren & Stimpy, The Simpsons—even Sesame Street counts a few Lampooners among its ranks. This is the story of a band of young talents who “irrevocably rewrote the landscape of American humor” (Publishers Weekly). “A vivid picture of a tight-knit family of twentysomething humorists at the dawn of their careers.” —Newsweek "The other night I started laughing so hard I had to leave the room . . . And then I realized that I hadn’t laughed so hard in 35 years, since I was a teenager, reading National Lampoon.” —The Wall Street Journal “If you grew up with the Lampoon, this book is a trip down memory lane like no other; if not, it will demonstrate that the much maligned 70s could produce humor that has never been surpassed.” —Vanity Fair

The Bertie Project

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Author :
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0525433015
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (254 download)

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Book Synopsis The Bertie Project by : Alexander McCall Smith

Download or read book The Bertie Project written by Alexander McCall Smith and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our beloved cast of characters are back, as are the joys and trials of life at 44 Scotland Street in this latest installment of Alexander McCall Smith’s delightfully charming series. Bertie’s mother, Irene, returns from the Middle East to discover that, in her absence, her son has been exposed to the worst of evils—television shows, ice cream parlors, and even unsanctioned art at the National Portrait Gallery. Her wrath descends on Bertie’s long-suffering father, Stuart. But Stuart has found a reason to spend more time outside of the house and seems to have a new spring in his step. What does this mean for the residents of 44 Scotland Street? The winds of change have come to the others as well. Angus undergoes a spiritual transformation after falling victim to an unexpected defenestration. Bruce has fallen in a rather different sense for a young woman who is determined to share with him her enthusiasm for extreme sports. Matthew and Elspeth have a falling out with their triplets’ au pair, while Big Lou continues to fall in love with her new role as a mother. And as Irene resumes work on what she calls her Bertie Project, reinstating Bertie’s Italian lessons, yoga classes, and psychotherapy, Bertie begins to hatch a project of his own—one that promises freedom.

The Last Dream-0-rama

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Author :
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 136 pages
Book Rating : 4.X/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis The Last Dream-0-rama by : Bruce McCall

Download or read book The Last Dream-0-rama written by Bruce McCall and published by Crown. This book was released on 2001 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When the postwar economic boom fostered such prosperity that easy credit allowed even hourly workers to plunge themselves hopelessly into debt, a brand-new car became an attainable dream for millions in the 1950s. And soon came dream cars to further stimulate their automotive saliva glands. By mid-decade, every American carmaker was parading its glittering glimpses of four-wheeled futurism before a dazzled public -- flights of styling fancy and functional wonderment blaring 'Headed for your driveway soon!' while mumbling, sotto voce, 'Don't hold us to it.' " So begins Bruce McCall's tongue-in-cheek history of Detroit's dream car era. From the author of the cult classic Zany Afternoons comes perhaps the sharpest, funniest, most original overview of Fifties culture -- and Fifties cars -- yet published. The Last Dream-o-Rama is a surrealistic satire, not just of the dream car phenomenon but of the conformist and materialistic value system that produced it. From the Quizfire 5000 Jackpot to the Nixoneer Squelchchoramic to the Bongo Beatnik Ferlinghetti TurboHipster, McCall's lavish illustrations and the antic text memorably restore the world of America in the Fifties in all its glitzy grandeur.

The Importance of Being Seven

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Author :
Publisher : Vintage Canada
ISBN 13 : 030739963X
Total Pages : 381 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis The Importance of Being Seven by : Alexander McCall Smith

Download or read book The Importance of Being Seven written by Alexander McCall Smith and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 44 SCOTLAND STREET - Book 6 The residents and neighbors of 44 Scotland Street and the city of Edinburgh come to vivid life in these gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive serial novels, featuring six-year-old Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy—just ask his mother. The great city of Edinburgh is renowned for its impeccable restraint, so how, then, did the extended family of 44 Scotland Street come to be trembling on the brink of reckless self-indulgence? After seven years and five books, Bertie is—finally!—about to turn seven. But one afternoon he mislays his meddling mother Irene, and learns a valuable lesson: wish-fulfillment can be a dangerous business. Angus and Domenica contemplate whether to give in to romance on holiday in Italy, and even usually down-to-earth Big Lou is overheard discussing cosmetic surgery. Funny, warm, and heartfelt as ever, The Importance of Being Seven offers fresh and wise insights into philosophy and fraternity among Edinburgh's most lovable residents.

Viagra Nation

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Author :
Publisher : Harper Perennial
ISBN 13 : 9780060193119
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (931 download)

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Book Synopsis Viagra Nation by : Lee Eisenberg

Download or read book Viagra Nation written by Lee Eisenberg and published by Harper Perennial. This book was released on 1998-08-05 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Attention all Viagrans, friends of Viagrans, and Viagrans to-be... With this book, Bruce McCall and Lee Eisenberg plant the flag on a brave new land called Viagra Nation, the blissful and outrageous state of mind where everybody is beautiful, where old-age dysfunction is a thing of the past, and where sexual fears, worries, and anxieties are declared null and void. Using drawings, diagrams, charts, graphs, postcards, stamps and just about anything else they can get their hands on, McCall and Eisenberg bring to life an earthly paradise made possible by the most phenomenal, notorious, and talked-about tablet since Moses. Viagra Nation is the uproarious and definitive guidebook to this glorious utopia, where men and woman are suddenly able to enjoy active, athletic sex lives long after they've lost day-to-day bladder control. So whether your already an upstanding citizen of Viagra Nation, or just thinking about the day you'll set sail, you're bound to get a rise out of this book. But in the unlikely event you don't, see your doctor. Includes: special Viagra aptitude test a Kama Sutra for Seniors sneak preview of Viagra fashions your own Sexual Security card exclusive Viagra Horoscope the Viagra Model Bedroom of Tomorrow plus commemorative stamps, postcards, charts, graphs, sexual aids, anatomical diagrams, and more!