Sideshow Of Merit

"You couldn't call Mount Rosa Hospital a good place to be in 1957, when you were fourteen. But it's where Tevan George was, and James Rowley too, 'convalescing' from tuberculosis. And it's where both boys were abused by an older boy--although neither of them did much talking about it, then or later ... Nine rocky years later, on the run together since they skipped out on a medical checkup at Mount Rosa's in 1961, Tevan and James emerge early one morning from the '55 Chevy they've been living in and come across Buddy Merit setting up his 'Ten in One' sideshow on a fairground in Ontario"--Dust jacket flap.

A staple of American popular culture during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the freak show seemed to vanish after World War II. This book reveals the image of the freak show, with its combination of the grotesque, horrific and amusing specimens.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BC NATIONAL AWARD FOR CANADIAN NON-FICTION A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK From the bestselling author and Hall of Famer Ken Dryden, this is the story of NHLer Steve Montador—who was diagnosed with CTE after his death in 2015—the remarkable evolution of hockey itself, and a passionate prescriptive to counter its greatest risk in the future: head injuries. Ken Dryden’s The Game is acknowledged as the best book about hockey, and one of the best books about sports ever written. Then came Home Game (with Roy MacGregor), also a major TV-series, in which he explored hockey’s significance and what it means to Canada and Canadians. Now, in his most powerful and important book yet, Game Change, Ken Dryden tells the riveting story of one player’s life, examines the intersection between science and sport, and expertly documents the progression of the game of hockey—where it began, how it got to where it is, where it can go from here and, just as exciting to play and watch, how it can get there.

Government and corporate interference have robbed the public of access to point-of-view programming. Through subterfuge, suppression of dissent and thought control, Washington (with eager assistance from Madison Avenue) has locked out the creatives and the educators -- the people who fashion any culture's future. Drawing less on the public record and commentary, more on what actually happened during meetings and conversations (like hiring/firing sessions), the author demonstrates how the social forces spawned by developing economics and government in the U.S. have straitjacketed this instrument of freedom and democracy. Larger issues affecting all of society are an important part of the book's architecture.

This book offers a novel approach to understanding the puzzle of nuclear proliferation by examining how leaders’ beliefs and perceptions about the international system influence states' decisions to acquire nuclear weapons. Today, there is a persisting dilemma over the spread of nuclear weapons for both practitioners and scholars of international affairs. Uncertainty remains whether determined proliferators can be stopped, as shown by the cases of North Korea and Iran. These instances of proliferation raise questions about regional stability, the use of pre-emptive military action, and the potential for reactive-proliferation by neighbouring countries. Despite the serious implications surrounding the spread of these weapons, proliferation scholarship has thus far failed to solve what has been described as the "proliferation puzzle"- why do some countries choose nuclear weapons while others do not? The author argues that understanding basic psychological motivations, such as the role of power and perceptions of self and others, forms a strategic context which provides answers about a leader’s willingness to proliferate. Proliferation willingness is a critical, yet frequently overlooked, part of the proliferation equation. Ultimately, it is the combination of willingness and proliferation opportunity (i.e. technical and scientific capabilities) that determines whether a country 'goes nuclear'. By examining several historical instances of proliferation decision-making—in South Africa, India, Libya and Australia—the book's findings highlight the fundamental role of leaders’ beliefs in shaping proliferation outcomes. This book will be of much interest to students of nuclear proliferation, political psychology, security studies and IR in general.

In The Curse of the Cobalt Moon, teenage hemophiliac, Joshua Puig discovers that he is a half-vampire. He has his life turned upside down when he is confronted with the existence of two types of half-vampires--a non-aggressive group, and another, infused with a much more combative and deadly blood stock. Joshua reluctantly accepts that he belongs to the group with the 'passive' supernatural strains. A cycle of seven blue moons completes the transformation for Joshua and all like him. Now, aged 16, a foster child living in Miami during the late 1960s, he is rapidly nearing this life changing event. Leading up to the "cobalt moon reckoning" Joshua, his fellow half-vampire, Milagros, and friends are thrust into their own life and death battle against the vengeance-seeking vampire vixen, Alegría Pérez.

Berlin 1937, Adolph Hitler and his cabinet meet with representatives of a tiny Latin American nation. Three years later, the unfolding consequences of that fateful meeting plunge a continent into flames. What, in our history, was an almost bloodless brushfire conflict between Ecuador and Peru, escalates into a life and death struggle which spreads relentlessly to almost every country in South America, bringing death and destruction. Axis of Andes is a stunning alternate history, exploring the baroque and tragic journey of Latin America from independence to the depression, and chronicling a dark history that might have been. A tiny change ends up altering the outcome of an election. Rippling outwards, Fascist movements gain more momentum, local politics unravel in new directions. Dominos cascade as the war spreads steadily, involving country after country in a death struggle. Deep examinations of the history, societies and economies of each combatant reveal the underlying tensions and stresses, the fault lines and tectonic divides that drive the internal politics and international agendas of each combatant. We see scenes of the war and the combatants from their own perspective as the world falls apart around them. Written as both a history and as a series of compelling narratives, The Axis of Andes is the first part of a two part Alternate History series which ultimately rewrites the map of South America. Volume One begins the war with the Invasion of Ecuador, the March on Lima, expanding to trench warfare between Peru and Chile, sea battles between Chile and Peru, and a jungle war slowly spreading through the interior. Followed by New World War, chronicles the resulting Bolivian Civil war, Brazil's rain forest war and the inevitable engagement of Argentina, Paraguay, Columbia in the conflict. Over everything, the spectre of the United States, distracted by European and Asian theatres, looms darkly.