The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Minnesota Vikings

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Minnesota Vikings
Author: Steve Silverman
Publisher: Triumph Books
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2007-08-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1617491438

What fans don't love to relive the good times of their favorite team? Likewise, in a twisted sort of way, what fans can really resist a self-pitying look back on some of those times that tested their allegiance? Those forgettable games, seasons, and plays that made the good times even better?The Good, the Bad, & the Uglypresents all the best moments and personalities in the history of the Minnesota Vikings. It also unmasks, but doesn't revel in, the bad, the regrettably awful and the unflinchingly ugly. In entertaining and unsparing fashion, this book sparkles with Vikings highlights, lowlights, wonderful and wacky memories, legends and goats, the famous and the infamous. You'll relive the Purple People Eaters, but also reminded of that 41-0 loss to the New York Giants in the 2000 NFC Championship (thought you had forgotten that, huh?).The Good, the Bad, & the Uglyincludes the best and worst Vikings teams and players of all time, the most clutch performances and performers, the biggest choke jobs and chokers, great comebacks and blown leads, plus overrated and underrated Vikings players and coaches. There are Vikings you loved for all the right reasons, and those you couldn't stand, sublime and embarrassing records, and trades, both savvy and savagely bad. Brawls and fights. Rivalries. Compelling photos. And much, much more. If you're a through-thick-and-thin Vikings fan,The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Minnesota Vikingsis especially for you. It will remind you of the good and great times and bring a knowing smile about some of those other times, when you proved to yourself just how loyal you are. For everyone else, this warts-and-all portrait of the Vikings will provide countless fond memories, goose bumps, and laughs.

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Minnesota Twins

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Minnesota Twins
Author: Steve Aschburner
Publisher: Triumph Books
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2008-05-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1600780768

Genuine fans take the best team moments with the less than great, and know that the games that are best forgotten make the good moments truly shine. This monumental book of the Minnesota Twins documents all the best moments and personalities in the history of the team, but also unmasks the regrettably awful and the unflinchingly ugly. In entertaining—and unsparing—fashion, this book sparkles with Twins highlights and lowlights, from wonderful and wacky memories to the famous and infamous. Such moments include the World Championships of 1987 and 1991 and the miraculous years when Bud Selig almost contracted the franchise, as well as the outrageous number of losses by Terry Felton and when manager Billy Martin punched out his starting pitcher in 1969. Whether providing fond memories, goose bumps, or laughs, this portrait of the team is sure to appeal to the fan who has been through it all.

Fourth and Long

Fourth and Long
Author: John U. Bacon
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2013-09-03
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476706441

From New York Times bestselling author and Michigan football expert John Back, an analysis of the state of college football: Why we love the game, what is at risk, and the fight to save it. In search of the sport’s old ideals amid the roaring flood of hypocrisy and greed, bestselling author John U. Bacon embedded himself in four college football programs—Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwestern—and captured the oldest, biggest, most storied league, the Big Ten, at its tipping point. He sat in as coaches dissected game film, he ate dinner at training tables, and he listened in locker rooms. He talked with tailgating fans and college presidents, and he spent months in the company of the gifted young athletes who play the game. Fourth and Long reveals intimate scenes behind closed doors, from a team’s angry face-off with their athletic director to a defensive lineman acing his master’s exams in theoretical math. It captures the private moment when coach Urban Meyer earned the devotion of Ohio State’s Buckeyes on their way to a perfect season. It shows Michigan’s athletic department endangering the very traditions that distinguish the college game from all others. And it re-creates the euphoria of the Northwestern Wildcats winning their first bowl game in decades. Most unforgettably, Fourth and Long finds what the national media missed in the ugly aftermath of Penn State’s tragic scandal: the unheralded story of players who joined forces with Coach Bill O’Brien to save the university’s treasured program—and with it, a piece of the game’s soul. This is the work of a writer in love with an old game—a game he sees at the precipice. Bacon’s deep knowledge of sports history and his sensitivity to the tribal subcultures of the college game power this elegy to a beloved and endangered American institution.

Sid!

Sid!
Author: Sid Hartman
Publisher: Mvp Books
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2007-05-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780760331903

Sid Hartman has been at the center of Minnesota sports for more than 60 years, getting the inside scoop from players, coaches, owners, and his many "close personal friends." This fascinating tell-all reveals Sid's life and career, from his days as a newspaper boy in Minneapolis and his first scoops as a cub reporter with the Minneapolis Tribune, to his place as a true Minnesota legend. From his controversial role as de facto general manager of the Minneapolis Lakers to his fight to save the Twins, Sid has been in the thick of the local sports scene at all levels. In these pages, sports fans will be privy to Sid's insight into hundreds of events and legendary figures, from Bud Grant and Bob Knight to Kirby Puckett and Kevin Garnett. As one of the most widely read and listened-to sports journalists in the Midwest for over half a century, Sid's impact has been felt by fans from all walks of life, including renowned figures such as Tom Brokaw and Walter Mondale, who called Sid "one of America's hardest-working, most widely read sportswriters." Join Sid and his cast of thousands, and enjoy their outrageous stories---and learn some Minnesota sports history in the process. This updated paperback edition includes Sid's reminiscences on the past decade of Minnesota sports, including the resurgent Twins, the rocky Vikings, and his always-beloved Gophers.

The Circle

The Circle
Author: Dave Eggers
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2013-10-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0385351402

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives—a “compulsively readable parable for the 21st century” (Vanity Fair). When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

This Is Where I Am

This Is Where I Am
Author: Zeke Caligiuri
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2016-10-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 145295190X

Prison is where Zeke Caligiuri is. Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis, dubbed “Murderapolis” the year he turned eighteen, is where he comes from. It was the same neighborhood his father grew up in but had changed dramatically by the early 1990s. Yet in Zeke’s family, father and mother and grandmother kept things together while all around them the houses decayed and once-safe streets gave way to the crush of poverty and crime. This Is Where I Am is Zeke Caligiuri’s clear-eyed account of how he got from there to here, how a boy who had every hope went from dreaming of freedom to losing it, along with nearly everything and everyone he loved. Tenderhearted in its reflections on his lost childhood, brutally candid in its description of a life of hanging and hustling, Zeke’s memoir recreates a world of tagging and goofing gone awry, of moving from smoking pot to unsuccessful attempts at dealing crack, of watching his father weep at the funeral of a seventeen-year-old boy, of going to jail: first strike. It is a place where, when asked what he's going to do with his life, a friend can only answer: “What the fuck are you talking about?” This Is Where I Am is Zeke's own answer: he is going to tell his story, every sharp detail and sobering word, with the natural grace of a gifted writer and the hard-won wisdom of hindsight.

Hungry

Hungry
Author: Crystal Renn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2009-09-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 143910123X

An inspiring tale for women of all ages, "Hungry" is an uplifiting memoir with a universal message about body image, beauty and self-confidence.

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Minnesota Vikings

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Minnesota Vikings
Author: Steve Silverman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007-08
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781572439887

Capturing the best and the worst moments in the history of some of America's favorite teams, this entertaining and informative series for sports fans includes information on the best and worst teams and players of all times, the greatest and worst moments in franchise history, dramatic comebacks and blown leads, overrated and underrated players and coaches, and more, all complemented by archival photographs.

This Country of Ours: The Story of the United States

This Country of Ours: The Story of the United States
Author: Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall
Publisher: e-artnow
Total Pages: 508
Release: 2018-11-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 8026897862

"This Country of Ours" is a collection of extraordinary stories from the history of the United States beginning with accounts of exploration and settlement and ending with the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. This is a book which when you lay it down will make you say, "I'm glad that I was born an American." Contents: Stories of Explorers and Pioneers How the Vikings of Old Sought and Found New Lands The Sea of Darkness and the Great Faith of Columbus How Columbus Fared Forth Upon the Sea of Darkness and Came to Pleasant Lands Beyond How Columbus Returned in Triumph How America Was Named How the Flag of England Was Planted on the Shores of the New World How the Flag of France Was Planted in Florida How the French Founded a Colony in Florida How the Spaniards Drove the French Out of Florida How a Frenchman Avenged the Death of His Countrymen The Adventures of Sir Humphrey Gilbert About Sir Walter Raleigh's Adventures in the Golden West Stories of Virginia The Adventures of Captain John Smith More Adventures of Captain John Smith How the Colony Was Saved How Pocahontas Took a Journey Over the Seas How the Redmen Fought Against Their White Brothers How Englishmen Fought a Duel With Tyranny The Coming of the Cavaliers Bacon's Rebellion The Story of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Stories of New England The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers The Founding of Massachusetts The Story of Harry Vane The Story of Anne Hutchinson and the Founding of Rhode Island The Founding of Harvard How Quakers First Came to New England How Maine and New Hampshire Were Founded The Founding of Connecticut and War With the Indians The Founding of New Haven The Hunt for the Regicides King Philip's War How the Charter of Connecticut Was Saved The Witches of Salem Stories of the Middle and Southern Colonies Stories of the French in America Stories of the Struggle for Liberty The Boston Tea-party Stories of the United States Under the Constitution

My Life in the Purple Kingdom

My Life in the Purple Kingdom
Author: BrownMark
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2022-05-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1452963576

From the young Black teenager who built a bass guitar in woodshop to the musician building a solo career with Motown Records—Prince’s bassist BrownMark on growing up in Minneapolis, joining Prince and The Revolution, and his life in the purple kingdom In the summer of 1981, Mark Brown was a teenager working at a 7-11 store when he wasn’t rehearsing with his high school band, Phantasy. Come fall, Brown, now called BrownMark, was onstage with Prince at the Los Angeles Coliseum, opening for the Rolling Stones in front of 90,000 people. My Life in the Purple Kingdom is BrownMark’s memoir of coming of age in the musical orbit of one of the most visionary artists of his generation. Raw, wry, real, this book takes us from his musical awakening as a boy in Minneapolis to the cold call from Prince at nineteen, from touring the world with The Revolution and performing in Purple Rain to inking his own contract with Motown. BrownMark’s story is that of a hometown kid, living for sunny days when his transistor would pick up KUXL, a solar-powered, shut-down-at-sundown station that was the only one that played R&B music in Minneapolis in 1968. But once he took up the bass guitar—and never looked back—he entered a whole new realm, and, literally at the right hand of Twin Cities musical royalty, he joined the funk revolution that integrated the Minneapolis music scene and catapulted him onto the international stage. BrownMark describes how his funky stylings earned him a reputation (leading to Prince’s call) and how he and Prince first played together at that night’s sudden audition—and never really stopped. He takes us behind the scenes as few can, into the confusing emotional and professional life among the denizens of Paisley Park, and offers a rare, intimate look into music at the heady heights that his childhood self could never have imagined. An inspiring memoir of making it against stacked odds, experiencing extreme highs and lows of success and pain, and breaking racial barriers, My Life in the Purple Kingdom is also the story of a young man learning his craft and honing his skill like any musician, but in a world like no other and in a way that only BrownMark could tell it.