The Contortionists Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of The Contortionists book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
Following a near fatal overdose of painkillers, Daniel Fletcher is resuscitated in a Los Angeles trauma centre and detained for psychiatric evaluation. However, what the psychiatrist doesn't know is that 'Daniel Fletcher' is actually John Dolan Vincent, a young forger who continually reinvents himself to evade capture. Originally published: London.
When five-year-old Joshua Christopher disappears off the street as he walks to a friend's birthday party, his family if forced to confront the unimaginable. What happened? Why? Who took him? The convicted sex offender caught lurking near the search? Why won't police leave his family, his parents, alone? In his second novel, his first in twenty years, Robert H. Van Wagoner explores a family in extremis tottering at the edge of faith: in God and church, in family, and in marriage, in the institutions that promise safety and meaning. Both lyrical and explosive, The Contortionists unfolds as a page-turning mystery. Van Wagoner's wrenching narrative propels the reader forward, toward the novel's harrowing climax, while deftly unpacking its major themes--mental illness, sexuality, and substance abuse in a culture that would rather not confront them. Does the truth ever set anyone ultimately free? The stakes for Joshua and his family could not be greater.
Ever watch the circus and wonder, "how do they do that?" Find the answers in this book! Readers will learn about some of the most mind-bending circus acts, from contortionists to human pyramids, and the science that makes them possible. Short, simple activities help demonstrate the science for readers.
Ten years ago, Dr. Gerd Heuschmann rocked the equestrian world with his international bestseller Tug of war, a searing indictment of modern training and riding techniques that are sometimes used to the detriment of the horse. Now Dr. Heuschmann returns with this new book: a critical examination of two conceptsflexion and bendthat are necessary to understand in absolute terms when the goal is to achieve collection on horseback. Citing the many masters of classical dressage who wrote essays and even entire books about flexion at the horse's poll and longitudinal bend of the horse's body, Dr. Heuschmann strives to conflate the often complex classic literature with the results of his own studies as an expert in equine anatomy and biomechanics, supporting his explanations with precise illustrations and numerous photographs. The outcome is a book that finally makes the concepts of flexion and bendand ultimately, collectioneasy to understand, promising more correct, conscientious riding, better results in training and competition, and happier, healthier horses in the long run.
At age seven, Otgo first fell in love with the beautiful art form that is contortion; and since then, she has never changed her mind. Throughout her life, her goal of being one of the top contortionists has not been a smooth journey. From the grasp of a socialist country, she escaped a morose childhood and transformed herself into a world famous performer. This is the story of Otgo reaching for the rare treat of success that seemed almost impossible as any challenge could have overtaken her. Since she was armed with intense devotion to her success, contortion saved her life and gifted Otgo with many opportunities.
Sosina Wogayehu learned to do flips and splits at the age of six, sitting on the floor of her parents' living room in Addis Ababa, watching a German variety show on the only television channel in the land. She sold cigarettes on the Ethiopian streets at the age of eight, and she played table soccer with her friends who made money from washing cars, barefoot in the dust. And, she dreamed of being a circus performer. Twenty-five years later, Sosina has conjured herself a new life in a far-off country: Australia. Along the way, she helped rescue one brother, yet she lost another. Sosina has traveled the world as a professional contortionist, capable of bounce-juggling eight balls on a block of marble. She performed with Circus Oz (Australia's premier circus company) from 2002-2009, and she appeared in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong. Sosina was also a 2007 nominee for the Australian of the Year Award. Additionally, Sosina has been able to juggle worlds and stories, and, by luck - which is something she is not short of - she is friends with author David Carlin. Following his acclaimed memoir Our Father Who Wasn't There, David Carlin brings us his 'not-me' book, traveling to Addis Ababa where he discovers ways of living so different from his own and where he confronts his Western fantasies and fears. Through Sosina's story, David shows us that, with risk and enough momentum, life's circumstances are never predictable: whom we befriend, where we end up, and how we come to see ourselves. *** "...Carlin is a master storyteller who is well-equipped for the challenge of capturing the life of a woman about whose culture, at the outset, he knows practically nothing. The subject of The Abyssinian Contortionist is clearly a remarkable person of unusual social mobility and ability, yet Carlin manages to navigate the high-wire act of astute observation without falling into hagiography....his writing is so crisp and vivid that, on reading its final pages, I felt a deep satisfaction and a longing for more. - Andrew McMillen, The Australian, May 2015Ã?Â?Ã?Â?Ã?Â?Ã?Â?[Subject: Biography, African Studies, Australian Studies, Women's Studies, Refugee Studies, Diaspora Studies]
From the renowned comedian, creator, star and executive producer/multiple title-holder of Comedy Central's Important Things with Demetri Martin comes a bold, original, and rectangular kind of humor book. Demetri's first literary foray features longer-form essays and conceptual pieces (such as Protagonists' Hospital, a melodrama about the clinic doctors who treat only the flesh wounds and minor head scratches of Hollywood action heroes), as well as his trademark charts, doodles, drawings, one-liners, and lists (i.e., the world views of optimists, pessimists and contortionists), Martin's material is varied, but his unique voice and brilliant mind will keep readers in stitches from beginning to end.
In poems that are by turns witty, lush, and unflinching, Acts of Contortion explores the gestures of both hurtfulness and compassion. Whether set in a shelter for battered women, in the midst of a political demonstration, or at the center of an orchestra, the poems pursue the place of language in an injurious world. The political conscience at work is feminist, pacifist, and at odds with itself. Anna George Meek finds that the brutal and the compassionate are sometimes indistinguishable, born of our need to make contact outside of ourselves. These gestures--of music, of touch, of poetry--appear in the poems as the violin, domestic abuse, and words to comfort a woman in pain. The poems argue: difficult yet imperative, the attempt to gesture beyond ourselves is an act of contortion.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in the spellbinding novel that captured the world's imagination. • "Part love story, part fable ... defies both genres and expectations." —The Boston Globe The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.