Bang Bang Crash

A rock and roll drummer abandons his successful music career to pursue his true passion and discovers a deeper understanding of artistic fulfillment in this episodic memoir of swapping one dream for another In the mid-1990s, fresh out of high school, Nic Brown was living his childhood dream as a rock and roll drummer. Signing a major label record deal, playing big shows, hitting the charts, giving interviews in Rolling Stone, appearing on The Tonight Show—what could be better for a young artist? But contrary to expectations, getting a shot at his artistic dream early in life was a destabilizing shock. The more he achieved, the more accolades that came his way, the less sure Brown became about his path. Only a few years into a promising musical career, he discovered the crux of his discontent: he was never meant to remain behind the drums. In fact, his true artistic path lay in a radically different direction entirely: he decided to become a writer, embarking on a journey leading him to attend the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, publish novels and short stories, and teach literature to college students across the country. Bang Bang Crash tells the story of Nic Brown’s unusual journey to gain new strength, presence of mind, and sense of perspective, enabling him to discover an even greater life of artistic fulfillment.

Words about sound and noise illustrate the letters of the alphabet.

A rock and roll drummer abandons his successful music career to pursue his true passion and discovers a deeper understanding of artistic fulfillment in this episodic memoir of swapping one dream for another In the mid-1990s, fresh out of high school, Nic Brown was living his childhood dream as a rock and roll drummer. Signing a major label record deal, playing big shows, hitting the charts, giving interviews in Rolling Stone, appearing on The Tonight Show—what could be better for a young artist? But contrary to expectations, getting a shot at his artistic dream early in life was a destabilizing shock. The more he achieved, the more accolades that came his way, the less sure Brown became about his path. Only a few years into a promising musical career, he discovered the crux of his discontent: he was never meant to remain behind the drums. In fact, his true artistic path lay in a radically different direction entirely: he decided to become a writer, embarking on a journey leading him to attend the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, publish novels and short stories, and teach literature to college students across the country. Bang Bang Crash tells the story of Nic Brown’s unusual journey to gain new strength, presence of mind, and sense of perspective, enabling him to discover an even greater life of artistic fulfillment.

The one book you need to read if you want to understand the financial world. For fans of Michael Lewis's THE BIG SHORT and Andrew Ross Sorkin's TOO BIG TO FAIL, CRASH BANG WALLOP tells the gripping story of the most daring financial experiment in modern history. Big Bang was the dramatic moment in October 1986 when London became a testing ground for a new type of global finance. It embodied a wider revolution and the birth of a new age of fully electronic trading, transcontinental commerce and wealth creation on a titanic scale. Big Bang had huge repercussions not just for the world of finance but for culture, society, attitudes to money and value, and how ordinary people around the world lived and worked. These changes mark the moment the modern world was born. Published on the 30th anniversary of Big Bang, Crash Bang Wallop is the definitive, unflinching story of what really happened during one of the most daring and ambitious financial experiments in history. Drawing on deep archival research and exclusive new interviews, Iain Martin expertly charts the rich history of the City and explores the dramatic upheavals of the '80s and their consequences. In an afterword titled 'The Fate of the City and the Future of Money', Martin assesses what is next for the City in the wake of Brexit and on the eve of the next revolution in global finance. For anyone who wants to understand money, markets or the men and women behind it all, this timely, entertaining and revealing work is essential reading.

The perfect book to calm down lively toddlers before bedtime. Join Crash, Bang and Wallop - three boisterous characters - as they crash through the story. They love making lots of noise! But soon they meet three quieter characters who help them see that there's fun to be had in the quiet moments, too. This joyful book is a celebration of noise . . . and quiet. The playful characters, bouncy rhyming text and vibrant artwork make this picture book a real treat to enjoy together. The book also includes a bonus mindfulness activity at the back of the book to help encourage quieter moments in the day.

The Junior Monster Scouts celebrate The Village’s 150th birthday in the hilarious second chapter book of the Junior Monster Scouts series! It’s The Village’s 150th birthday celebration! And that means bright lights, popcorn machines, a marching band, and a musical merry-go-round. But not if Baron Von Grump can help it! If he shuts off The Village’s electricity, there won’t be any noise or merriment. Meanwhile, in Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory, Igor Jr. was specifically told not to touch anything, especially “that lever.” But Igor Jr. didn’t listen, and now the lab is a clunking, clanking, crackling mess of gears, electricity, and lightning. Can Vamprya, Franky, and Wolfy—the Junior Monster Scouts—fix Igor’s mess and save The Village party? Or has the Baron ruined the fun for everyone?

Uli’s first flight, a late-night joy ride with his brother, changes their lives forever when the engine stops and the boys crash land, with “Texas to the right and Mexico to the left.” Before the accident, Uli juggled his status as both an undocumented immigrant and a high school track star in Harlingen, Texas, desperately hoping to avoid being deported like his father. His mother Araceli spent her time waiting for her husband. His older brother Cuauhtémoc, a former high-school track star turned drop-out, learned to fly a crop duster, spraying pesticide over their home in the citrus grove. After the crash, Cuauhtémoc wakes up bound and gagged, wondering where he is. Uli comes to in a hospital, praying that it’s on the American side of the border. And their mother finds herself waiting for her sons as well as her missing husband. Araceli knows that she has to go back to the country she left behind in order to find her family. In Mexico, each is forced to navigate the complexities of their past and an unknown world of deprivation and violence. Ruthless drug cartels force Cuauhtémoc to fly drugs. “If a brick goes missing, Cuauhtémoc dies. If a plane goes missing, Cuauhtémoc dies. If Cuauhtémoc goes missing, they find Cuauhtémoc (wherever he’s at) and Cuauhtémoc dies.” If they can’t find him, they will kill his mother. They have photos of her in Matamoros to prove they can enforce the threat. Meanwhile, Uli returns to his family’s home in San Miguel and finds a city virtually abandoned, devastated by battles between soldiers, cartels and militias that vie for control. Vividly portraying the impact of international drug smuggling on the innocent, Peña’s debut novel also probes the loss of talented individuals and the black market machines fed with the people removed and shut out of America. Ultimately, Bang is a riveting tale about ordinary people forced to do dangerous, unimaginable things.

When Edie, a naive Bible-college dropout from Massachusetts, finds her life derailed in unfamiliar Georgia, she pins her hopes on a sexy Samaritan-a tough, tattooed firefighter named Cross-and follows him deep into the boondocks, where she gets a very different kind of education. All Cross ever wanted was to be a local war hero, but his chance at glory ended in an explosive display of piss-poor judgment. Now, his crumbling marriage to "crazy" Braylee Lewis and his growing pill habit lead Cross to look for an escape-and he finds it in the form of hot little doe-eyed Edie, who is eager to lick his wounds. Braylee's redneck family didn't exactly give her the blueprint for domestic bliss, but she vowed to do better when she married Cross, the All-American soldier. Three kids later, their chemistry feels more like a chemical spill and wedlock like a federal sentence. But if she thinks she can just break free-well, she really must be crazy. Told through the eyes of three lovers, Crash Bang Burn is an anti-romance novel; a postmortem on the bro-country anthems about them pretty little blue-eyed girls that slices open the dark underbelly of sex, marriage, and family in the dirty South.