Made to Break is a history of twentieth-century technology as seen through the prism of obsolescence. Giles Slade explains how disposability was a necessary condition for America's rejection of tradition and our acceptance of change and impermanence. This book gives us a detailed and harrowing picture of how, by choosing to support ever-shorter product lives, we may well be shortening the future of our way of life as well.

These eleven short fictions evoke the microcosmic worlds every human relationship contains. A woman is captivated by the stories her boyfriend tells about his exes. A faltering artist goes on a date with a married couple. Twin brothers work out their rivalry via the girl next door. In every one of these tales, we meet indelibly real and unforgettable people, a cast of rebels and dreamers trying to transform themselves, forge new destinies, or simply make the moment last.

A Washington Post Bestseller An entirely fresh approach to ending the high school dropout crisis is revealed in this groundbreaking chronicle of unprecedented transformation in a city notorious for its "failing schools" In eighth grade, Eric thought he was going places. But by his second semester of freshman year at Hancock High, his D's in Environmental Science and French, plus an F in Mr. Castillo's Honors Algebra class, might have suggested otherwise. Research shows that students with more than one semester F during their freshman year are very unlikely to graduate. If Eric had attended Hancock—or any number of Chicago's public high schools—just a decade earlier, chances are good he would have dropped out. Instead, Hancock's new way of responding to failing grades, missed homework, and other red flags made it possible for Eric to get back on track. The Make-or-Break Year is the largely untold story of how a simple idea—that reorganizing schools to get students through the treacherous transitions of freshman year greatly increases the odds of those students graduating—changed the course of two Chicago high schools, an entire school system, and thousands of lives. Marshaling groundbreaking research on the teenage brain, peer relationships, and academic performance, journalist turned communications expert Emily Krone Phillips details the emergence of Freshman OnTrack, a program-cum-movement that is translating knowledge into action—and revolutionizing how teachers grade, mete out discipline, and provide social, emotional, and academic support to their students. This vivid description of real change in a faulty system will captivate anyone who cares about improving our nation's schools; it will inspire educators and families to reimagine their relationships with students like Eric, and others whose stories affirm the pivotal nature of ninth grade for all young people. In a moment of relentless focus on what doesn't work in education and the public sphere, Phillips's dramatic account examines what does.

"Made to Break, D. Foy's debut novel, snaps. Literary, cinematic... Foy] is a writing school of one, and Made to Break ushers his literary energies into categorical existence." -The Daily Beast "Strange and freewheeling... forsaking plot in favor of something much more cerebral and immediate. Made to Break works its English over, coining fresh and sometimes unapologetically awkward phrases to milk out something strange and animate." -Los Angeles Review of Books " Made to Break] reads like a macabre mumblecore script penned by Jim Thompson. It's one swell medley of mayhem and defeat dashed together by the vitality of D. Foy's prose. Zainy, sly, and darkly comedic." -Entropy Magazine "With influences that range from Jack Kerouac to Tom Waits and a prose that possesses a fast, strange, perennially changing rhythm that's somewhat akin to some of John Coltrane's wildest compositions, this narrative is at once emotionally gritty and surprisingly beautiful even during its darkest moments. Foy has delivered the kind of notable narrative that pulls an author out of the very crowded rookie pool and places him at the top of the list of fresh voices that readers of outstanding fiction should keep on their radar." -HTML Giant Two days before New Years, a pack of five friends--three men and two women--head to a remote cabin near Lake Tahoe to celebrate the holidays. They've been buddies forever, banded together by scrapes and squalor, their relationships defined by these wild times. After a car accident leaves one friend sick and dying, and severe weather traps them at the cabin, there is nowhere to go, forcing them to finally and ultimately take stock and confront their past transgressions, considering what they mean to one another and to themselves. With some of the most luminous and purple prose flexed in recent memory, D. Foy is an incendiary new voice and Made to Break, a grand, episodic debut, redolent of the stark conscience of Denis Johnson and the spellbinding vision of Roberto Bola o. D. Foy has had work published or forthcoming in BOMB, Post Road, the Literary Review, the Georgia Review, Forty Stories: New Writing from Harper Perennial, and Laundromat, an homage to photographs of laundromats throughout New York City (powerHouse Books).

Hollywood Drive: What it Takes to Break in, Hang in & Make it in the Entertainment Industry is the essential guide to starting and succeeding at a career in film and TV. Written by a Hollywood insider, Honthaners invaluable experience and advice will give those attempting to enter and become successful in the entertainment industry the edge they need to stand out among the intense competition. Because while film school prepares students to write a script, direct a scene and operate a camera, few newcomers enter the job market understanding how this business truly works and how to land a first jobmuch less succeed in the industry. Hollywood Drive is not merely a book about what it takes to get your foot in the door. It goes beyond that by offering you the tools, attitude, philosophy and road map youll need to give yourself a good fighting chance at success -- whether youre looking for your very first job or for a strategy to move your career to the next level. This book will allow you to proceed with your eyes wide open, knowing exactly what to expect. Hollywood Drive explores the realities of the industry: various career options, effective job search strategies, how to write an effective cover letter and resume, what to expect on your first job, the significance of networking and building solid industry relationships, how a project is sold, and how a reel production office and set operate. Youll learn how to define your goals and make a plan to achieve them, how to survive the tough times, how to deal with big egos and bad tempers, and how to put your passion to work for you. * Hollywood insider with 20+ years of experience provides realistic advice and tips on getting a first job and moving up in a tough industry * Covers a variety of career choices and the basics of how a production is set up and run * Includes must-have information on breaking into both Hollywood and smaller markets nationwide

* One of the best books of 2014 —Flavorwire, Entropy Magazine Two days before New Years, a pack of five friends—three men and two women—head to a remote cabin near Lake Tahoe to celebrate the holidays. They’ve been buddies forever, banded together by scrapes and squalor, their relationships defined by these wild times. After a car accident leaves one friend sick and dying, and severe weather traps them at the cabin, there is nowhere to go, forcing them to finally and ultimately take stock and confront their past transgressions, considering what they mean to one another and themselves. With some of the most luminous and purple prose flexed in recent memory, D. Foy is an incendiary new voice and Made to Break, a grand, episodic debut, redolent of the stark conscience of Denis Johnson and the spellbinding vision of Roberto Bolaño. "Made to Break, D. Foy’s debut novel, snaps. Literary, cinematic... [Foy] is a writing school of one, and Made to Break ushers his literary energies into categorical existence." —The Daily Beast

As Wolfgang Gullich said, getting strong is easy, getting strong without getting injured is hard . Sooner or later, nearly all climbers get injured and it will be injuries that ultimately dictate how far you get in climbing, if you let them. Unfortunately, the data shows it takes over a decade just to get small proportions of medical research adopted in regular practice. Sourcing reliable and up to date advice on preventing and treating finger, elbow, shoulder and other climbing injuries is challenging to say the least. You need to be the expert, because there are so many strands of knowledge and practice to pull together to stay healthy as a climber, and no single source of advice to cover all of these. The book draws together both the cutting edge of peer reviewed sports medicine research, and the subtle concepts of changing your climbing habits and routine to prevent and successfully recover from injuries. It is a handbook on how to take care of yourself as a lifelong climbing athlete. By spanning the fields of climbing coaching, physiotherapy, sports medicine and behavioural science, it goes beyond the general advice on treating symptoms offered by sports medicine textbooks and into much more detail on technique and habits specific to climbing than the existing climbing literature base. You will learn how your current climbing habits are already causing your future injuries and what you can do to change that. If you are already injured, it will prevent you from prolonging your injury with the wrong climbing habits and rehabilitation choices. You will learn how the ingredients of prevention and good recovery come from wildly different sources and how you have been using only a fraction of them. Fully referenced throughout, the practical advice for diagnosis, rehabilitation and prevention of climbing injuries is drawn from up to date peer reviewed sports medicine research.

Fake. That's what we are. That's what we agreed to be. So why does it feel so real? I thought it would have been harder, convincing everyone our school's star receiver was mine and mine alone, but I was wrong. We played our parts so well that the lines between us began to blur until they disappeared completely. The thing about pretending, though, someone's always better at it, and by the time I realized my mistake, there was no going back. I fell for our lie. And then everything fell apart. It turned out he and I were never playing the same game. He didn't have to break me to win. But he did it anyway.

Macy Hines has the perfect marriage, a beautiful, Manga-drawing, teenage daughter and she lives in a town filled the perfect stepford wives‹that is until her life takes on a dramatic turn. Her husband leaves her for a younger woman, her daughter hates her, Macy becomes best friends with vodka and the community she had been so involved with suddenly turns their backs on her. After trying desperately to put her life back together and failing miserably, Macy decides to take her best friend�s offer of an all-expense-paid trip to Italy for all three of them in order to breathe and work out her issues. At this rate, it feels like it will take a miracle to save her. Draco De Luca is at that age where he�s looking for a woman to spend the rest of his life with, and so far he hasn�t been having much luck. That is until he visits his mother�s house for a dinner and meets an ebony goddess with sad brown eyes. But her past demons are getting in the way‹she has been damaged, and now he has to decide if he has to let her go to be whole again, or should he help?