Open Door
Скачать книги из серии Open DoorThe Peasants and The Mariners
Modern travelers on foot follow wisdom along the Ulster Way. Storytellers, said Walter Benjamin, are descended from one of two tribes: the mariners or the peasants. We revel in the stories of the sailors, with their lure of exotic places and the treasures a mariner brings home. We hearken to the stories of the peasants for a glimmer of the past, best revealed to natives and landed people. Brian Bouldrey, professional vagabond, and his very organized friend Garth, two unlikely mariners, hit dry land with backpacks and point their hiking boots down the Ulster Way. Along the more than 600 miles of Northern Irish mountains, moors, and monuments, they pursue a quest. Among the causeways and caves and publicans’ cups, they seek faraway places revealed by the wisdom that only the peasant can offer.
The Last Body Part
A woman discovers she has a rogue body part, one she’s never heard of. As she prepares herself for surgery to remove the offense, she travels to London and finds answers to her questions in unexpected places—a locked room in a museum where jars of Victorian body parts are stored, an early 19th century operating room in the attic of a church, and a diary by a woman whose husband dissected a rhinoceros in their flat. Along the way, she ponders the nature of disease, the unfortunate name given to her errant organ, and the marvels of modern surgery. This is the story of the last body part discovered—the parathyroid gland.
The Giant Baby
What do you do when something magical happens…in your own backyard? Linda and Earl are a happy couple. Although married for many years, they have never had children. Still, they are content being together, and watching reruns of “I Love Lucy” keeps them close. That, and a magical garden that never seems to grow what they plant. One day Earl finds a set of infant toes in the loam. He and Linda plant them and watch in amazement as the garden produces an enormous baby. Now Earl and Linda have to figure out how to be parents—if they are parents—and what to do about the giant baby who eats everything and cries for his mama.
Pirates on Dinosaur Island
Dr. Christopher Lemuel escapes England on a privateer after he has the misfortune of winning a duel. With his life in jeopardy, he signs on as ship's doctor only to face further dangers on the high seas. The good doctor is wounded in a sea battle, captured by pirates, and reluctantly becomes a buccaneer. Then matters become stranger still when Dr. Lemuel is marooned on an island populated by enormous beasts unknown in natural history.
Peach
 Everyone has a prom story – the culmination of the vibrant and painful years of high school. Throw in the sexual revolution, a stuttering cousin for a date, and a parking valet dressed like Abraham Lincoln, and looking cool is an impossible dream. Edith, the fierce and vibrant narrator, tries to leave nuns snapping prom pictures and her painful past behind, and find a way to be both the free spirit her friends require and to be herself.
One Season in the Sun
When Mark Buehrle threw his perfect game against Tampa Bay, it was DeWayne Wise, the ninth inning White Sox defensive sub who made the leaping, back against the wall catch of a fly ball, robbing Gabe Kapler of a home run and preserving Buehrle’s achievement. Until that moment, Wise was virtually anonymous. Yet for that one moment in July, Wise moved into the spotlight and The Los Angeles Times called his one of the top ten moments in sports for 2009. But when the season ended, Wise was a free agent, able to sign only a minor league deal. He went to Toronto. The history of baseball is filled with players like Wise—players who are good enough to reach the top of the sport but who, for any number of reasons, hang at the edges of the game. Some manage to spend only a week or two in the major leagues and then disappear back into the minors. Many leave the sport. These are the tales of one-season wonders. Here are stories of the brief moments when, for an afternoon, a week, a couple of months, they stood on the field with the best of the best in the game