Beach Week

Ah, "beach week": a time-honored tradition in which the D.C. suburbs' latest herd of high school grads flocks to Chelsea Beach for seven whole days of debauched celebration. In this dark comedy, ten teenage girls plan an unhinged blowout the likes of which their young lives have never seen. They smuggle vodka in water bottles and horde prescription drugs by the dozen. Meanwhile, their misguided, affluent parents are too busy worrying about legal liabilities to fret over some missing pills or random hookups. For Jordan Adler and her family, though, this rite of passage threatens to become more than just frivolous fun. The teen's parents, Leah and Charles, might not let their only child go at all. Their marriage is in shambles, their old house is languishing on the market, and the bills are stacking up. With all that stress, it soon seems they're behaving as irresponsibly as their daughter and her friends. With the wit of Nora Ephron and the insight of Tom Perrotta, Susan Coll satirizes a new teenage rite of passage, in the process dismantling the lives of families in transition. Beach Week is a hilarious, well-observed look at the end of childhood and the human need to commemorate it—expensively.

One Last Swim By: RL Monsheimer John’s life is one marked by obstacles. Even his parents, before he was born, were faced with the obstacle of overcoming their different religious backgrounds—Roman Catholic and Conservative Judaism—to get married and start a life. In school, John longs to pursue his passion for swimming, but his parents think his dream is silly and wish he would focus more on getting better grades and less time on some Olympic medal pipe dream. When a significant injury threatens his swimming career, John must decide to give up his goals or keep moving forward, defying everyone’s expectations of what he can accomplish.

In 1919, the world stood at the threshold of the Jazz Age. The man who had ushered it there, however, lay murdered--and would soon plunge from international fame to historical obscurity. It was a fate few would have predicted for James Reese Europe; he was then at the pinnacle of his career as a composer, conductor, and organizer in the black community, with the promise of even greater heights to come. "People don't realize yet today what we lost when we lost Jim Europe," said pianist Eubie Blake. "He was the savior of Negro musiciansin a class with Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King." In A Life in Ragtime , Reid Badger brilliantly captures this fascinating life, tracing a critical chapter in the emergence of jazz through one man's remarkable odyssey. After an early start in Washington, Europe found his fame in New York, the entertainment capital of turn-of-the-century America. In the decade before the First World War, he emerged as an acknowledged leader in African-American musical theater, both as a conductor and an astonishingly prolific composer. Badger reveals a man of tremendous depths and ambitions, constantly aspiring to win recognition for black musicians and wider acceptance for their music. He toiled constantly, working on benefit concerts, joining hands with W.E.B. Du Bois, and helping to found a black music school--all the while winning commercial and critical success with his chosen art. In 1910, he helped create the Clef Club, making it the premiere African-American musical organization in the country during his presidency. Every year from 1912 to 1914, Europe led the Clef Club orchestra in triumphant concerts at Carnegie Hall, winning new respectability and popularity for ragtime. He went on to a tremendously successful collaboration with Vernon and Irene Castle, the international stars who made social dancing a world-wide rage. Along the way, Europe helped to revolutionize American music--and Badger provides fascinating details of his innovations and wide influence. In World War I, the musical pioneer won new fame as the first African-American officer to lead men into combat in that conflict--but he was best known as band leader for the all-black 15th Infantry Regiment. As the "Hellfighters" of the 15th racked up successes on the battlefield, Europe's band took France by storm with the new sounds of jazz. In 1919, the soldiers returned to New York in triumph, and Europe was the toast of the city. Then, just a few months later, he was dead--stabbed to death by a drummer in his own orchestra. From humble beginnings to tragic end, the story of Jim Europe comes alive in Reid Badger's account. Weaving in the wider story of our changing culture, music, and racial conflict, Badger deftly captures the turbulent, promising age of ragtime, and the drama of a triumphant life cut short.

French Phrases Vol.1: English & French THIS EDITION: French Phrases seeks to bridge the gap between knowing individual words and knowing how to create or understand sentences. Sentences are phrases or a combination of phrases, and phrases are a combination of words. The simplest phrases are the simplest ways of combining words. Exposure to a wide variety of phrases, especially in increasing complexity, provides the basis for obtaining a solid grasp of a new language. The reason being, phrases can be combined with other phrases to create endless possibilities in language. French Phrases contains a wide variety of phrases, but it also demonstrates how phrases can increase in complexity – through the inclusion of individual words or other phrases. The reader can choose between four formats: Section 1: English to French Section 2: French to English Section 3: English Section 4: French The text can be used to obtain a fundamental grasp of French grammar. An understanding of the rules that underpin the way words combine into phrases, or phrases combine into sentences, allows the language learner to expand their capacity exponentially simply by increasing vocabulary. With this in mind, the text includes an introductory section summarising the important aspects of French grammar. The dual-language text has been arranged for quick and easy cross-referencing. The text can be used on its own. However, the content is ideal for reinforcing and expanding on a basic grasp of the language. With an increasingly robust grasp of the language, the language learner can easily and fruitfully move on to more advanced bilingual text — like in 2Language Books editions —, or suitable French only text: a simple novel, a French news website, etc. Many basic language books offer some form of audio support. Internet services — primarily news based radio stations — offer podcasts. Audio from television is an additional resource, and can be formatted for use on various digital platforms. However, if audio is an important component of your interest in languages, electronic devices that support quality text-to-speech (TTS) will likely be appealing. With a library card, TTS technology (in a device that supports the relevant content), and the above mentioned resources (as digital content), an entire language learning system is available for not much more than a cup of coffee! There is no substantial financial outlay to get you started. Furthermore, there are no additional ongoing fees (and updates), and there are no expiry dates on ‘premium’ content and resources. (A Dual-Language Book Project) 2Language Books