Bøger udgivet af Bancroft Press

When it comes to surviving the joys of parenthood, take Sandi Kahn Shelton's advice: You Might As Well Laugh. In this hilarious collection of essays and columns, Shelton offers humor as the best therapy for post-modern parenting. From lost keys and broken appliances to chicken pox and outrageous homework assignments, this working mother of three explores the everyday quirks and joys of fast-paced family life with wit and candor.Hailed as a young Erma Bombeck, Shelton has a knack for finding the absurd details that can wreak havoc on a household. Her wide-eyed, embracing style has made her the number one humor columnist among working mothers all over the country. Shelton has been writing her "Wit's End" column for Working Mother magazine since 1989 and her weekly column in the New Haven Register since 1987.When it comes to surviving the joys of parenthood, take Sandi Kahn Shelton's advice: You Might As Well Laugh. In this hilarious collection of essays and columns, Shelton offers humor as the best therapy for post-modern parenting. From lost keys and broken appliances to chicken pox and outrageous homework assignments, this working mother of three explores the everyday quirks and joys of fast-paced family life with wit and candor.

Kaufman''s Hill opens with a prosaic neighbourhood scene: The author and some other young boys are playing by the creek, one of their usual stomping grounds. But it soon becomes clear that much more is going on; the boy-narrator is struggling to find his way in a middle-class Catholic neighbourhood dominated by the Creely bullies, who often terrify him. It''s the Pittsburgh of the early and mid-1960s, a threshold time just before the counter-culture arrives, and a time when suburban society begins to encroach on Kaufman''s Hill, the boy''s sanctuary and the setting of many of his adventures. As the hill and the 1950s vanish into the twilight, so does the world of the narrator''s boyhood. "My pappy says if you''re going to be afraid of everything, you may as well live in the sewer" are the words that first open the narrator''s eyes. And once he befriends the enigmatic, erratic, but charismatic Taddy Keegan, he becomes bolder and no longer lives in abject fear of the Creelys. The narrator''s relationship with Taddy proves to be unconventional, though. Taddy, caught in his own imaginary universe, is often unaware of companions around him. The narrator focuses on uncovering the mystery of Taddy: Why does he live his life like he''s a performer? Who is he really? The narrator''s world is a mix of exhilarating freedom -- because of absent parents, teachers, and priests -- and imminent dangers. And his home life is problematic. The narrator observes his taciturn father as he copes with manic behaviours and cyclically repeating problems, while his mother struggles to better the life not just of her young son, but that of her African American cleaning woman in a time of racial animosity and racially-related urban violence. The boy watches his parents with eyes too young to truly understand, and is increasingly disappointed by an increasingly remote father who rarely speaks to him. As the narrator matures, his self-concept shifts within a widening world that includes disconcerting sexual experiences with public school girls, and his struggle to frame himself within the realm of the Catholic Church. He finds flaws with all but one religious figure, an aunt, who is a sublime and mystical presence in his life. The narrator joins sports teams that bring him back to the same kind of childhood "friends" he wanted to escape, and he questions whether he himself could act like a bully. When he begins high school, the narrator, at a dramatic moment, leaves boyhood behind, which might just include leaving Taddy Keegan behind as well. John C Hampsey''s "Kaufman Hill" is lyrical and profound. It captures the dynamics of the lost world of boyhood in a way no one has before. No wonder the late, great historian Howard Zinn called it "the best book written on American boyhood in decades".

The year is 2021 and the money is still green. The fully privatized city of Tulsa, OK, is home to Sara Paige Christie, a teenage girl with her heart set on a film career in L.A. and her camera trained on the graffiti-covered walls of the city''s outskirts. In pursuit of a documentary subject that might propel her from college hopeful to film school admittee at USC, Sara has focused her ambitions upon a singularly ubiquitous tag -- WH2RR?? From the facades of storefronts to the walls of public restrooms, the tag is appearing nearly everywhere. Its stark all-capital letters and demanding question marks have captured Sara''s imagination, even as the private security personnel of Free Force Tulsa (FFT) scramble to eliminate the marks with power washers, gray-overs, and full censorship, stripping even photographs of the tags from the locally accessible Internet. Sara has no doubt that there is meaning hidden in plain sight, and she sets off on a mission to find the person behind the mysterious tags while balancing an already full life: her final exams, her wild best friend, a physical fitness test that threatens her GPA, and a family that seems almost oblivious to what''s happening just down the street from their suburban home. With the exception, perhaps, of her father. A retired Marine turned FFT investigator, Sara''s dad has been on the trail of the graffiti artist for his own professional reasons. And if he knows what''s going on, he''s not telling Sara. And they''re not the only ones on the hunt... Tensions are rising in town and beyond. Between the machinations of the city''s home-grown megachurch, Chosen Hill, and the movements of a growing camp of homeless citizens parked just beyond Tulsa''s comfort and security, life in Tulsa is about to become very interesting, and Sara just might be in the right place to catch it all on film... but only if she survives.

With so much written, rumored, told, and retold about Marilyn Monroe, it's amazing to consider how much we still don't know. On the screen she was iconic, radiant, and yet her talent so rarely earned her respect. In life she was intelligent, brilliant, and yet regarded as little more than Hollywood's blonde bombshell.She was the wife of baseball stars and playwrights and the plaything of the president. She was full of life, even as drugs and depression drove her ever-closer to death.But who was the real Marilyn Monroe, beyond the hit films and the headlines? Take away Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Prince and the Showgirl, Some Like It Hot and The Misfits, and who was the Norma Jean underneath?Psychoanalyst and longtime biographer Dr. Alma Bond has explored the hidden lives of remarkable women like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Camille Claudel. Now she turns her analytical eye to the untold story of Marilyn Monroe, the woman everyone wanted to see and touch, but whom almost no one actually wanted to know.Dr. Bond imagines, in detail, a several-year stretch during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Marilyn, an exceedingly fragile figure, submits to analysis on the couch of Manhattan psychoanalyst Dr. Darcy Dale. When Marilyn returns to Hollywood, their sessions turn to correspondence as the truth of Marilyn's final years is revealed.Brilliantly, entertainingly, and movingly, Marilyn Monroe: On the Couch shows just what lay beneath Marilyn's iconic beauty. Dr. Dale, a fictional stand-in for the author, sees Marilyn Monroe as few ever have, both inside and out, and transfers those insights to readers. It's impossible to imagine anyone providing a better, more complete, intimate, and unforgettable understanding of this truly remarkable, even pivotal figure in film and sexual history.

What would happen if a respected American corporation agreed to develop chemical warfare on behalf of an anonymous client who turned out to be enemy terrorists? That's the central question in Morris' second novel, which blends high-end finance with international intrigue. At the centre of it all is Tim Mack, a trader who left a New York firm to begin anew in San Diego. Just as his life is starting to feel on track again, his new firm suffers a monumental blow when the research lab of a key client explodes, apparently exposing survivors and clean-up crew to a mysterious virus. San Diego detective Bob Moore senses there's more behind the explosion than a mere lab accident, and he and Tim unite to try to unravel the mystery.

Barely adequate philosophy professor Legare Hume has a mind-body problem. No matter how far he goes, no matter how hard he thinks, he can't escape the world he lives in. On the run from his wife Tally, Legare joins brilliant but exceptionally awkward colleague Saul Grossman to attend the American Philosophical Association's Charleston, SC conference. Legare's mission is simple enough: put up with the conference, read a paper he never thought anyone would want to hear, receive the tenure he isn't sure he wants, and return, or not, to the wife who nearly killed him before he left. But his plans are hijacked by a botched hotel reservation and the all-too-convenient presence of the Southern family Legare has worked very hard all his adult life to avoid. Circumstances -- namely the inconvenient death of a mentally challenged uncle -- bring the whole family together. Meanwhile, wrestlers in the guise of religious figures enact the Apocalypse. And through it all, there's Lucian, Legare's late brother, who killed himself years ago. What does his death mean? What's the family secret Legare has been hiding from? What's there to learn from this rapid-fire collision of worlds, where all kinds of people and all kinds of views are inherently and bizarrely connected? And what will it take for Legare to be both in and of the world?

When seventeen-year-old Sophia dares life to prove to her she should stay alive, her suffering is at its climax, her predicament at its worst, and her adolescence at its most difficult.

Music, television, cigarettes, junk food. In the world of Matthews's bitingly satiric novel, these industries all rely on and take advantage of teenagers for a large proportion of their incomes. High-school senior Todd Noland has grown tired of it and develops a unique idea. Stop buying it. Stop buying the products, the hype, and the peer pressure. All of it. With the aid of fellow senior Joel Karstan, he organises a protest against the neighbourhood convenience store that is effective enough to attract the attention of Annie McCullough. A 20-something executive for R2Rev, a music video cable channel boasting edgy and offensive hosts, she is young enough to appreciate the protest yet savvy enough to help carry it and her career forward. As the media attention builds, the teens set their sights on a new cause -- electing their history teacher to a seat on the town council.

In precisely the same spirit as Abelard and Heloise and Romeo and Juliet, Paul and Juliana are a fresh young couple who embody the near-impossible notion of perfect love. In this elegant, timeless, and lyrical love story, they walk the fine line between forbidden romance and tragic disaster that is the stuff of ageless myths. Paul is a sloppy genius who would rather sing and play his guitar on a street corner than take the SATs and have his pick of Ivy League schools. Juliana is a lovely musical prodigy kept under the thumb of her old-fashioned, Viennese-born parents. Author Richard Hawley revives the classical romance in order to ask age-old questions: Is true adolescent love possible? What is perfect love? And what is perfection? Paul and Juliana leave the answers up to you, while promising to take you on a magical journey of both personal and epic proportions.

"Meet Hank Collins, an astute, gutsy, and funny 13-year-old who's just finished the seventh grade at a public school in Baltimore's affluent suburbs. But all is not trouble-free for Hank. He must contend with a troubled family, an alien school, and a world otherwise booby-trapped with alluring but perilous possibilities.Hank is a page-turning, contemporary, coming-of-age story of growing up amidst this wreckage of a dangerous and suspenseful summer. From him, we hear the events of his life. We stand by him on the baseball field and at the dinner tables of his remarried parents. We walk with him into an epic, appalling, yet believable teenage party. We share with him an astounding encounter with adult weekend warriors. We see not just his confusions and dismays, but his grit, his honesty, and his vulnerability. We like him, and root for him, and care about him.Through a raw, real, and rewarding storyline, recounted with an understated elegance, and dialogue that is witty and captivating, we watch as he manages to evolve into a courageous, undaunted human being.As The Harvard Crimson observes, Hank is so authentic that one sometimes feels the need to check for that standard disclaimer reminding us that these characters are only fictitious. Hank bursts from the pages, vibrant and flawed. We feel his pain, share his sorrows, and rejoice in his triumphs.There is no holding back here, notes Pulitzer-Prize-winning writer Buzz Bissinger. There is no political correctness. The world that Hank sees and tells us about--a world fraught with pitfalls, potholes, protagonists, antagonists, decency, and deceit--is the world of the American pre-adolescent.Author Arch Montgomery never shies away from important issues, adds The Harvard Crimson, and never takes the easy way out in dealing with them. With a few deft strokes, he manages to compress every in-between shade of gray into the dialogue and actions of his characters. Like the state of the world it reflects, good and evil are not always so clear-cut. Part of Hank's journey of growth entails understanding and dealing with that realization.No wonder The Harvard Crimson concludes: ""Few novels have succeeded in capturing the essence of adolescence, but the likes of Tom Sawyer and Holden Caulfield are about to welcome the newest member to their ranks a 13-year-old boy named Hank... Arch Montgomery, impressive in an incandescent debut, shows a mastery of his craft and an unusually perceptive insight into the human heart."""

Small-town lawyer Shep Harrington should have known nothing good could come of a sudden visit from a stranger. When former soap-opera star Sydney Vail lands on his doorstep all keyed up, Shep figures he should help the damsel in distress, going so far as to agree to baby-sit her companion, a very intelligent chimp named Kikora. Problem is, Sydney doesn't return, and soon Shep learns that she stole Kikora from a drug-testing laboratory and is being sought in connection with the murder of the lab's head scientist. With the help of close friends, a very persistent investigative reporter, and one crotchety old attorney, Shep decides to help defend Sydney, all the while becoming enlightened about the plight of laboratory animals.

For Whom the Minivan Rolls is a family comedy and mystery about Aaron Tucker, a freelance journalist/screenwriter and work-at-home dad in suburban New Jersey, who's selected by his town's richest resident to find his missing, then murdered wife, and who bumbles his way to connecting the dots and sniffing out the killer and why.

Using a ''novel approach'', Susan Laubach painlessly and engagingly explains the basics of investing through the story of Missy Kitt. An investment novice, Kitt lands a job at an over-the-hill brokerage firm headed by the somewhat stodgy Mr Caboodle. As Kitt learns the basics of investing from the inside, you will absorb useful concepts such as the Ten Commandments for Investing and the Four-Season Portfolio Plan. Includes investing worksheets. A successful portfolio manager and 15-year veteran of a major brokerage firm, Laubach teaches investment basics to groups and individuals across the USA.

Wilber Winkle, an idiosyncratic nebbish with a peculiar focus on the odd and unlikely fact, has corresponded for years with America's major corporations. Fueling his complaints and comments is a single overriding premise: that the rights of consumers - his rights - are under siege, and he must do what he can to defend them. Employing the exasperating curiosity of a six-year-old and far-fetched notions which only he can devise, Wilber will have readers laughing aloud, trying to read their favorite Wilber letters to friends and relatives without cracking up.

In this book, his first as movie critic, Hunter does what no one else has done - identified the most important or notorious 100 movies released since 1982, organized them by topic, and analyzed them for how they uniquely deal with, and what they say about, violence. Because it deals with a subject on the minds of many Americans and American politicians, Violent Screen is thus extraordinarily timely. Yet, as a serious book by a serious reviewer, it is timeless, too. It's also entertaining. Hunter's movie-reviewing is rife with energy, humor, sharp-edged analysis, and intensity. He's a man who loves the movies so much he can't walk away from a reviewing job at a daily newspaper despite earning substantial sums on each of the novels he now writes. His first book of non-fiction will appeal to the millions of film and video lovers whose idea of entertainment is a regular trip to the movie theater or the video store, and whose idea of a good discussion is one centering on a recent or important movie they've seen at home or in a theater.