Before And Behind The Curtain

'Epic... Wilson writes captivatingly with humour...anyone with an interest in eastern European sport will be consulting this book for years to come' FINANCIAL TIMES 'This fascinating and perceptive travelogue includes a fine collection of anecdotes too colourful for fiction' SUNDAY TIMES 'A blissful book, lovingly and stylishly written' DAILY TELEGRAPH From the war-ravaged streets of Sarajevo, where turning up for training involved dodging snipers' bullets, to the crumbling splendour of Budapest's Bozsik Stadium, where the likes of Puskás and Kocsis masterminded the fall of England, the landscape of Eastern Europe has changed immeasurably since the fall of communism. Jonathan Wilson has travelled extensively behind the old Iron Curtain, viewing life beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall through the lens of football. Where once the state-controlled teams of the Eastern bloc passed their way with crisp efficiency - a sort of communist version of total football - to considerable success on the European and international stages, today the beautiful game in the East has been opened up to the free market, and throughout the region a sense of chaos pervades. The threat of totalitarian interference no longer remains; but in its place mafia control is generally accompanied with a crippling lack of funds. In BEHIND THE CURTAIN Jonathan Wilson goes in search of the spirit of Hungary's 'Golden Squad' of the early fifties, charts the disintegration of the footballing superpower that was the former Yugoslavia, follows a sorry tale of corruption, mismanagement and Armenian cognac through the Caucasuses, reopens the case of Russia's greatest footballer, Eduard Streltsov, and talks to Jan Tomaszewski about an autumn night at Wembley in 1973...

"My all-time favorite. Astonishing." (Stephen King) Down the Rabbit Hole is the first book in the Echo Falls mystery series by bestselling crime novelist Peter Abrahams. Perfect for middle school readers looking for a good mystery. Welcome to Echo Falls, home of a thousand secrets. In Down the Rabbit Hole, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or at least her shoes are. And getting them back will mean getting tangled up in a murder investigation as complicated as the mysteries solved by her idol, Sherlock Holmes. With soccer practice, schoolwork, and the lead role in her town's production of Alice in Wonderland, Ingrid is swamped. But as things in Echo Falls keep getting curiouser and curiouser, Ingrid realizes she must solve the murder on her own—before it's too late. "Deft use of literary allusions and ironic humor add further touches of class to a topnotch mystery," said School Library Journal. "Intriguing twists." Publishers Weekly agreed: "The fresh dialogue and believable small-town setting will tempt fans to visit Echo Falls again." The next book in this Edgar Award-nominated series in Behind the Curtain, followed by Into the Dark.

Beginning in the 1930s, men and a handful of women came from India's many communities-Marathi, Parsi, Goan, North Indian, and many others--to Mumbai to work in an industry that constituted in the words of some, "the original fusion music." They worked as composers, arrangers, assistants, and studio performers in one of the most distinctive popular music and popular film cultures on the planet. Today, the songs played by Mumbai's studio musicians are known throughout India and the Indian diaspora under the popular name "Bollywood," but the musicians themselves remain, in their own words, "behind the curtain"--the anonymous and unseen performers of one of the world's most celebrated popular music genres. Now, Gregory D. Booth offers a compelling account of the Bollywood film music industry from the perspective of the musicians who both experienced and shaped its history. In a rare insider's look at the process of musical production from the late 1940s to the mid 1990s, before the advent of digital recording technologies, Booth explains who these unknown musicians were and how they came to join the film music industry. On the basis of a fascinating set of first-hand accounts from the musicians themselves, he reveals how the day-to-day circumstances of technology and finance shaped both the songs and the careers of their creator and performers. Booth also unfolds the technological, cultural, and industrial developments that led to the enormous studio orchestras of the 1960s-90s as well as the factors which ultimately led to their demise in contemporary India. Featuring an extensive companion website with video interviews with the musicians themselves, Behind the Curtain is a powerful, ground-level view of this globally important music industry.

Colin Jackus doesn't want to be in the school play and is angry because he's been forced into it. But gradually he starts to realize that it's not just a play - the sinster story they are acting has its roots deep in cruel reality and despair. Strange things are happening among the cast of the play and misery is seeping through them. So when the leading actor starts to take on the evil personality of the character he's supposed to be playing, Jackus decides to delve deeper and try and stop the disaster that threatens.

In Behind the Curtain 2, author Marc LeVitre pulls back the curtain once again to reveal the Truth as seen in mainstream movies. These films have been chosen because they have impacted LeVitre on a spiritual level. He delves into such themes as coming-of-age, dealing with the cruel world, sports, the despicable, and Disney. LeVitre also analyzes film that should have been in the first book but were not because they were then too complicated or were not on his radar, and he adds to and/or corrects comments made in the first book. LeVitre, in most cases, ties films to Scripture. However, his Holy Spirit again has led him to explore areas of his life in a few instances. The author had believed the first book would be the last, for about a week. Then God inundated him with what appears in this volume. Since the beginning, LeVitre, a pastor's son, has been looking for the moral of the story, and by doing so, has been entertained, but more importantly, has been enlightened. LeVitre has been proud to call New Hampshire home since 1968.

Behind the Curtain of Power: How Karl Rove, David Axelrod, Roger Ailes, James Carville, Dick Morris, and Lee Atwater Won the Toughest Race in the World and Changed America By: Rune Olsø We all know the names of the last US presidents, but who were the masterminds that catapulted them into the highest echelon of power? Go behind the scenes for an honest look at the way a handful of exceptional political operatives manipulated, cajoled, and maneuvered their way through the political battlefield of presidential elections. Discover who they are, deep down; where they come from and the goals and fears driving them. With nicknames like "Bad Boy", "the Ragin' Cajun," "the Architect," and "the Axe", they left a trail of victims in their paths. To some they are heroes, to others, villains. We cannot fully understand history without understanding them. Behind the Curtain of Power is the fascinating story of the political masterminds that orchestrated victories in the toughest race in the world - and changed America.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.