Famous Freaks

Famous Freaks
Author: Deborah Warren
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2024-03-05
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1510779302

Did you know Thomas Edison proposed to his wife in Morse code? Or that the CIA considered covering Castro’s shoes in thallium to get rid of his iconic beard? The strange facts and foibles of history’s famous figures are divulged in Famous Freaks. The book is a fun, bite sized compendium of the weird and unbelievable. Big names—small disclosures. Important historical data—little to none. This book can be picked up and read anywhere, from any starting point. Skim a section or just peruse a page, but you may find yourself hooked after reading a few of the hilariously strange entries inside. Deborah Warren, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker and The Paris Review, deals out the strange facts of history’s famous with a poetic style and a sense of humor. The collected details, those which history might rather have forgotten, are given their place in the spotlight. Start from the front, but if it’s not your thing, flip around the pages. There are plenty of Famous Freaks inside.

Freaks

Freaks
Author: Daniel P Mannix
Publisher: eNet Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2014-11-19
Genre:
ISBN: 1618867571

A noir classic about the era of the sideshow when freaks were the star attraction — respected and revered by other carnival members. Their stories are frankly and tenderly told by an author who lived and worked as a carny.

Uglies Quartet: Uglies; Pretties; Specials; Extras

Uglies Quartet: Uglies; Pretties; Specials; Extras
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 1290
Release: 2013-11-21
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1471121593

Before The Hunger Games, there was… Uglies. Fast-paced, chilling and thought-provoking - this ebook collection will leave you wondering. Beauty guaranteed-but at what price? In Tally's world, at sixteen you are transformed from a repellent Ugly into a stunningly attractive Pretty, and catapulted into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a great time. But Tally is tired of it. And the choices she makes changes her world forever. First as an ugly, then a pretty, and finally a special, Tally takes down the social infrastructure. And then, a generation later, a world obsessed with fame and instant celebrity - and filled with extras - will reap the consequences. This ebook boxed set includes all four titles in the international bestselling series.

Dead Little Dolly

Dead Little Dolly
Author: Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli
Publisher: Beyond The Page
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2013-04-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1937349675

Fans of Louise Penny will love the Emily Kincaid mysteries by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli! “Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli is a rather rare jewel among writers. She can make you laugh, keep you interested and make you angry with a certain character all at the same time. It is these conflicting emotions that make me return to her writing time and again.” —Goodreads, on Dead Sleeping Shaman Even the beauty of Northern Michigan can’t put a smile on the face of Emily Kincaid’s perpetually cranky friend Deputy Dolly Wakowski, and when someone tries to destroy the only family Dolly has ever had, her crankiness turns lethal, even as the crime threatens to overwhelm her. Still struggling in her career as a mystery writer, Emily takes a deep breath before stepping in to help. As they launch their search for Dolly’s assailant and the investigation deepens, two strange clues emerge: the attacker’s trademark black jellybeans and a note to Dolly reading “Thou Shalt Not Steal.” With Dolly’s disposition growing more sour by the day and Emily growing more curious, the two encounter a violent and abusive boyfriend, dig up old clues from Dolly’s painful past, and strengthen a friendship that’s as odd as it is perfect. But before Dolly and Emily can puzzle it all out, a loved one of Dolly’s will be murdered, another will be kidnapped, and a long-awaited confrontation between a mother and a daughter will heal at the very moment it kills. Rave reviews for the Emily Kincaid Mysteries Dead Dancing Women “Every woman who’s ever struggled with saying no, fitting in, and balancing independence against loneliness will adore first-timer Emily.” —Kirkus Reviews Dead Floating Lovers “A mystery that keeps you guessing, together with the story of a woman slowly finding her voice” —Kirkus Reviews Dead Sleeping Shaman “Buzzelli’s well-crafted third Emily Kincaid . . . [features] sharp prose and spirited characterizations.” —Publishers Weekly “Readers will find the same strong sense of place and great characters that are hallmarks of Sarah Graves and Philip Craig.” —Library Journal Dead Dogs and Englishmen A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2011! “Buzzelli will have you packing your bags for a move to northern Michigan.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Emily is a detective for our times: She can’t afford health care, but she can make flour out of cat tails and work three jobs at once.” —Christian Science Monitor

White Male Disability in Modernist Literature

White Male Disability in Modernist Literature
Author: Martina Simone Kübler
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2023-01-16
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004529381

White men represent power in white supremacist patriarchy. What happens when literary texts depict them as disabled? Embodying more than just crises of masculinity, white male disability is a reckoning with old orders, provoking new perspectives on life and love in the modern era.

Uglies

Uglies
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2010-03-04
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1847389090

The first book in Scott Westerfeld's international bestselling series, Uglies! Tally lives in a world where your sixteenth birthday brings aesthetic perfection: an operation which erases all your flaws, transforming you from an 'Ugly' into a 'Pretty'. She is on the eve of this important event, and cannot wait for her life to change. As well as guaranteeing supermodel looks, life as a Pretty seems to revolve around having a good time. But then she meets Shay, who is also fifteen - but with a very different outlook on life. Shay isn't sure she wants to be Pretty and plans to escape to a community in the forest - the Rusty Ruins - where Uglies go to escape ' turning'. Tally won't be persuaded to join her, as this would involve sacrificing everything she's ever wanted for a lot of uncertainty. When she is taken in for questioning on her birthday, however, Tally gets sent to the Ruins anyway - against her will. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she could ever imagine: find her friend Shay and turn her in, or never turn Pretty at all. What she discovers in the Ruins reveals that there is nothing 'pretty' about the transformations... And the choice Tally makes will change her world forever. ‘Fast paced, exciting and thought-provoking.’ The Bookseller's Choice ‘Superb sci-fi.’ Amanda Craig, The Times Supplement ‘Westerfeld introduces thought-provoking issues’ Publishers Weekly ‘The longing for fairy-tale beauty has never looked so sinister’ Amanda Craig, The Times ‘With a beginning and ending that pack hefty punches, this introduction to a dystopic future promises an exciting series.’ Kirkus *starred review* ‘Naughty children, from Max in Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, to Tally in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy, have the imagination and energy to go beyond convention.’ The Times ‘This exciting story makes you realise how important it is not to judge people by appearances.’ Newcastle Upon Tyne Journal ‘This book is a real thrill-ride and the world utterly convincing.’ Trashionista.com 'Fun, and the many by-the-skin-of-your-teeth escapes and hoverboard chases, plus the non-stop action plotting were enough to catch my attention and have me eagerly wanting more.’ The Book Smugglers Also by Scott Westerfeld: Pretties Specials Extras Afterworlds

P.T. Barnum

P.T. Barnum
Author: A. H. Saxon
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 512
Release: 1989
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780231056878

I believe hugely in advertising and blowing my own trumpet, beating the gongs, drums, to attract attention to a show, Phineas Taylor Barnum wrote to a publisher in 1860. "I don't believe in 'duping the public,' but I believe in first attracting and then pleasing them." The name P.T. Barnum is virtually synonymous with the fine art of self-advertisement and the apocryphal statement, "There's a sucker born every minute." Nearly a century after his death, Barnum remains one of America's most celebrated figures. In the Selected Letters of P.T. Barnum, A.H. Saxon brings together more than 300 letters written by the self-styled "Prince of Humbugs." Here we see him, opinionated and exuberant, with only the rarest flashes of introspection and self-doubt, haggling with business partners, blustering over politics, and attempting to get such friends as Mark Twain to endorse his latest schemes. Always the king of showmen, Barnum considered himself a museum man first and was forever on the lookout for "curiosities," whether animate or inanimate. His early career included such outright frauds as Joice Heth, the "161-year-old nurse of George Washington," and the Fejee Mermaid-the desiccated head and torso of a monkey sewn to the body of a fish. Although in later years he projected a more solid, respectable image-managing the irreproachable "legitimate" attraction Jenny Lind, becoming a leading light in the temperance crusade, founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus-much of his daily existence continued to be unabashedly devoted to manipulating public opinion so as to acquire for himself and his enterprises what he delightedly termed "notoriety." His famous autobiography, The Life of P.T. Barnum, which he regularly augmented during the last quarter century of his life, was itself a masterpiece of self-promotion. "Will you have the kindness to announce that I am writing my life & that fifty-seven different publishers have applied for the chance of publishing it," he wrote to a newspaper editor, adding, "Such is the fact-and if it wasn't, why still it ain't a bad announcement." The Selected Letters of P.T. Barnum captures the magic of this consummate showman's life, truly his own "greatest show on earth."