The War At The Shore

It¿s all quiet now on the eastern front of the American gaming industry-Atlantic City, New Jersey-but for five chaotic years, real estate developer Richard ¿Skip¿ Bronson was at the white-hot center of a titanic clash of money and power that transformed Atlantic City from a struggling day-tripper place with buses in and out to a born again destination drawing tourists from New York, Philadelphia, and other major cities along the eastern seaboard.From 1995 to 2000, two of the world¿s best-known companies- Mirage Resorts and Trump Resorts-run by two of the most flamboyant businessmen of our time, fought a bare-knuckled, high-stakes battle over a prime piece of real estate in one of America¿s most famous resort towns. No money was spared, no punch was pulled, no invective went unhurled in "The War at the Shore." Now Bronson, who was a member of the board of directors of Mirage and president of New City Development Company, the Mirage subsidiary whose primary purpose was to build a top-level new casino and hotel complex in Atlantic City, tells the inside story of this epic struggle.Along the way, Bronson weaves in fascinating and inspiring anecdotes from his complicated past: A product of a fractured family and city-owned housing project in Hartford, Connecticut; former paperboy, spelling bee champion yet college dropout; and prolific developer of shopping centers and office buildings-including CityPlace, Connecticut¿s tallest skyscraper, Bronson embodies the self-made business success story. Gripping from beginning to end, The War at the Shore is a rare up-close look at the world of casino development and the essential modern chapter in the history of America¿s ¿Boardwalk Empire.¿

The true story of the dramatic 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island, which changed the competition in golf forever. The 1991 Ryder Cup began in 1985. Up to then, the biennial match between all-star teams of golf professionals from America and Europe was more ceremonial exhibition than real competition, with the Americans consistently beating the Europeans. That all changed in 1985, when the Europeans wrested it away at the Belfry in Sutton Coldfield, England. The Europeans would go on to win again in 1987, and in 1989 the competition ended in a draw. By the time the 1991 Ryder Cup arrived, the American team had vengeance on their minds. The 1991 Ryder Cup also occurred between the United States’s victories in both the Persian Gulf War and the Cold War that year, and the sense of patriotism that came along with the end of those conflicts permeated the national psyche. The competition was broadcast to over 200 million people in twenty-three countries across the globe. Fans forgot golf ’s gentlemanly code of conduct, and loud boos, jeers, and cheers of “USA!” could be heard from the gallery. The Ryder Cup began to resemble the Super Bowl, and it quickly became evident that this match was about more than just golf. In The War by the Shore, veteran golf writer and bestselling author Curt Sampson chronicles this pivotal competition. He interviewed dozens of key players from both Team USA and Team Europe, and provides historical context to explain why the tension was ratcheted so high at this particular Ryder Cup. Well-researched, engrossing, and deeply entertaining, The War by the Shore is the story of when golf lost its manners (and, to some extent, its mind).

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and one of the world’s greatest storytellers comes "an insistently metaphysical mind-bender” (The New Yorker) about a teenager on the run and an aging simpleton. Now with a new introduction by the author. Here we meet 15-year-old runaway Kafka Tamura and the elderly Nakata, who is drawn to Kafka for reasons that he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, acclaimed author Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder, in what is a truly remarkable journey. “As powerful as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.... Reading Murakami ... is a striking experience in consciousness expansion.” —The Chicago Tribune

"On the Beach" is a 1957 post-apocalyptic novel written by British-Australian author Nevil Shute after he emigrated to Australia. The novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne as they await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the northern hemisphere following a nuclear war a year previously. As the radiation approaches each person deals with their impending death in different ways.

“A poignant expression of the durability, grace, and potential of the human spirit” set in a post-nuclear dystopia where words are worth killing for (Jean M. Auel, author of the Earth’s Children series). By the late twenty-first century, civilization has nearly been destroyed by overpopulation, economic chaos, horrific disease, and a global war that brought a devastating nuclear winter. On the Oregon coast, two women—writer Mary Hope and painter Rachel Morrow—embark on an audacious project to help save future generations: the preservation of books, both their own and any they can find at nearby abandoned houses. For years, they labor in solitude. Then they encounter a young man who comes from a group of survivors in the South. They call their community the Ark. Rachel and Mary see the possibility of civilization rising again. But they realize with trepidation that the Arkites believe in only one book—the Judeo-Christian bible—and regard all other books as blasphemous. And those who go against the word of God must be cleansed from the Earth . . . In this “thought-provoking” novel of humanity, hope, and horror, M.K. Wren displays “her passionate concern with what gives life meaning (Library Journal).

An intimate and poignant memoir about the family of Alan Kurdi—the young Syrian boy who became the global emblem for the desperate plight of millions of Syrian refugees—and of the many extraordinary journeys the Kurdis have taken, spanning countries and continents. Alan Kurdi’s body washed up on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea on September 2, 2015, and overnight, the political became personal, as the world awoke to the reality of the Syrian refugee crisis. Tima Kurdi first saw the shocking photo of her nephew in her home in Vancouver, Canada. But Tima did not need a photo to understand the truth—she and her family had already been living it. In The Boy on the Beach, Tima recounts her idyllic childhood in Syria, where she grew up with her brother Abdullah and other siblings in a tight‑knit family. A strong‑willed, independent woman, Tima studied to be a hairdresser and had dreams of seeing the world. At twenty‑two, she emigrated to Canada, but much of her family remained in Damascus. Life as a single mother and immigrant in a new country wasn’t always easy, and Tima recounts with heart‑wrenching honesty the anguish of being torn between a new home and the world she’d left behind. As Tima struggled to adapt to life in a new land, war overtook her homeland. Caught in the crosshairs of civil war, her family risked everything and fled their homes. Tima worked tirelessly to help them find safety, but their journey was far from easy. Although thwarted by politics, hounded by violence, and separated by vast distances, the Kurdis encountered setbacks at every turn, they never gave up hope. And when tragedy struck, Tima suddenly found herself thrust onto the world stage as an advocate for refugees everywhere, a role for which she had never prepared but that allowed her to give voice to those who didn’t have an opportunity to speak for themselves. From the jasmine‑scented neighbourhoods of Damascus before the war to the streets of Aleppo during it, to the refugee camps of Europe and the leafy suburbs of Vancouver, The Boy on the Beach is one family’s story of love, loss, and the persistent search for safe harbour in a devastating time of war.

So persuasive are Yoon's powers of invention that I went searching for his Solla Island somewhere off the mainland of South Korea not realizing that it exists only in this breathtaking collection of eight interlinked stories...Yoon's writing results in a fully formed, deftly executed debut. The lost lives, while heartbreaking, prove illuminating in Yoon's made-up world, so convincing and real. To read is truly to believe. San Francisco Chronicle ''Paul Yoon writes stories the way Faberg made eggs; with untold craftsmanship, artistry, and delicacy. Again and again another layer of intricacy is revealed, proving that something as small as a story can be as satisfying and moving as a Russian novel. Ann Patchett ''These are lovely stories, rendered with a Chekhovian elegance. They span from post - World War II to the new millennium, with characters of different ethnicities, yet each story has a timelessness and relevance that's haunting and unforgettable. Yoon is a sparkling new writer to welcome and celebrate. Don Lee ''these are splendid stories, at once lyrical and plain-spoken and full of unusual realities. Once the Shore is a kind of fantastic Korean gazetteer that tours us confidently through unpredictable incidents and often startling conversations. Paul Yoon's writing is erotic, haunting, original and worldly. Howard Norman Spanning over half a century from the years just before the Korean War to the present the eight stories in this collection reveal an intricate and unforgettable portrait of a single island in the South Pacific. Novelistic in scope, daring in its varied environments, Once the Shore introduces a remarkable new voice in international fiction.

A bold explanation of how and why national leaders are able—or unable—to correctly analyze and predict the intentions of foreign rivals