One of the Boston Globe 's "Best Sports Books of 2014" As the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games approach, ordinary Brazilians are holding the country's biggest protest marches in decades. Sports journalist Dave Zirin traveled to Brazil to find out why. In a rollicking read that travels from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the fabled Maracanã Stadium, Zirin examines how athletic mega-events turn into neoliberal Trojan horses.

An introduction to the life of the Commander in Chief of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

With his bag of detective tools in hand, Detective Jeffrey Bones can solve any mystery. Good thing, because Mr. Green has lost his school bus! Will Detective Bones be able to solve the case? Find out in this Level 3 reader!

In 1940, thirteen-year-old Tommy's routine of school, playing stickball in his Bronx, New York, neighborhood, talking with his Jewish friend Beth, and listening to Dodgers games on the radio changes as his mother's illness and his increasing awareness of the war in Europe transform his world.

Three stories from the fictional Polish town of Chelm where the "wise" council members, though doing their best, make foolish decisions regarding the townspeople.

Presents a history of human interaction and cultural relations in the Mediterranean Sea region, from prehistoric times to the present day.

Judging by the number of youth leagues, soccer is America's game. And with international soccer star David Beckham under contract to the Los Angeles Galaxy, that future seems a lot closer. As perfectly timed as one of his trademark penalty kicks, David Beckham's Soccer Skills takes young players to the next level. This illustrated book utilizes teaching techniques perfected at the David Beckham Academy for aspiring players.

With more than 120 photos in full color and the complete screenplay, the story behind the making of the movie based on the beloved bestselling novel directed by Marc Forster ( Monster's Ball , Finding Neverland , and Stranger Than Fiction ). Based on one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, The Kite Runner is a profoundly emotional tale of friendship, family, devastating mistakes, and redeeming love. In a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amirand Hassan, are about to be torn apart forever. One boy's fearful act of betrayal will mark their lives forever and set in motion an epic quest for redemption. Now, after 20 years of living in America, Amir returns to a perilous Afghanistan under the Taliban's iron-fisted rule to face the secrets that still haunt him and take one last daring chance to set things right. This universal human story speaks to anyone who has every yearned for a second chance to make a change and find forgiveness. This beautifully designed pictorial book includes the complete screenplay, highlighted by exquisite color photographs, behind-the-scenes stories about the production, the locations (the western Chinese desert that borders Afghanistan), the casting of the globally diverse cast and crew, and commentaries by novelist Khaled Hosseini and director Marc Forster.

With his ability to make abstract ideas concrete and approachable, Berlinski tells an engrossing tale and introduces us to one of the greatest of all human endeavours.

Finalist for the 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize A disgraced Israeli politician comes face to face with the man who denounced him to the KGB and sent him to the Gulag These incandescent pages give us one momentous day in the life of Baruch Kotler, a disgraced Israeli politician. When he refuses to back down from a contrary but principled stand regarding the West Bank settlements, his political opponents expose his affair with a mistress decades his junior. He and the fierce young Leora flee the scandal for Yalta, where he comes face to face with the former friend who denounced him to the KGB almost forty years earlier. In a mere twenty-four hours, Kotler must face the ultimate reckoning, both with those who have betrayed him and with those whom he has betrayed, including a teenage daughter, a son facing his own ethical dilemmas in the Israeli army, and the wife who stood by his side through so much. In prose that is elegant, sly, precise and devastating, David Bezmozgis has rendered a story for the ages, an inquest into the nature of fate and consequence, love and forgiveness. WEB: BEZMOZGIS.COM TWITTER: @DBEZMOZGIS

Bohm suggests that collective thought and knowledge have become so automated that we are in large part controlled by them, with a subsequent loss of authenticity, freedom and order.

Bestselling, award-winning futurist David Brin returns to globe-spanning, high concept SF with Existence. Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there's something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn't on the decades' old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth's infomesh about an "alien artifact." Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game-changer. A message in a bottle; an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity. This edition of the book is the deluxe, tall rack mass market paperback.

Maia and her twin sister must leave their home to seek their fortunes. On their journey they endure hardship, hunger, imprisonment, bloody battles with pirates and separation. Maia meets a traveler who threatens the delicate balance of their society.

Debates on the authenticity of the Star Wars franchise and the hero-or-villain status of George Lucas are at the heart of these essays by bestselling science-fiction authors. The incredible popularity of the movies has led to the formation of strong emotions within the science fiction community on the strengths and flaws of the films, exemplified here by David Brin's attacks and Matthew Woodring Stover's defense of the movies. This intense examination of the epic works addresses a broad range of issues—from politics, religion, and the saga's overall logic to the impact of the series on bookshelf space as well as science-fiction film. The question Is George Lucas a hero for bringing science fiction to a mass audience or a villain who doesn't understand the genre he's working for? is discussed before a final "Judge's Verdict" on the greatness—or weakness—of the franchise is reached.