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An American Childhood
Annie Dillard remembers. She remembers the exhilaration of whipping a snowball at a car and having it hit straight on. She remembers playing with the skin on her mother's knuckles, which "didn't snap back; it lay dead across her knuckle in a yellowish ridge." She remembers the compulsion to spend a whole afternoon (or many whole afternoons) endlessly pitching a ball at a target. In this intoxicating account of her childhood, Dillard climbs back inside her 5-, 10-, and 15-year-old selves with apparent effortlessness. The voracious young Dillard embraces headlong one fascination after another--from drawing to rocks and bugs to the French symbolists. "Everywhere, things snagged me," she writes. "The visible world turned me curious to books; the books propelled me reeling back to the world." From her parents she inherited a love of language--her mother's speech was "an endlessly interesting, swerving path"--and the understanding that "you do what you do out of your private passion for the thing itself," not for anyone else's approval or desire. And one would be mistaken to call the energy Dillard exhibits in An American Childhood merely youthful; "still I break up through the skin of awareness a thousand times a day," she writes, "as dolphins burst through seas, and dive again, and rise, and dive.".
Price: $5.00
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Pickles To Pittsburgh
In Pickles to Pittsburgh, the Barretts' sequel to the delightfully funny, bestselling Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, we check back in with Kate and Henry as they eagerly await Grandpa's return from an unusual vacation. Kate dreams about a postcard Grandpa has sent, and the story begins. Kate and Henry pilot a plane, landing on a runway of crisp bacon strips next to a field of giant broccoli stalks and oversized hamburgers. Passing through an orange-juice rain, they approach the town of Chewandswallow, which "used to be a very ordinary town, except that instead of weather, food rained down from the sky for breakfast, lunch, and dinner." Times have changed in Chewandswallow, and readers will love finding out how storms of gigantic food threatened normal life until eventually the Falling Food Company was created, sending food to hungry people around the world. Ron Barrett's comical, detailed ink-and-watercolor illustrations and the lively story make this a satisfying sequel to a delicious classic. Pickles to Pittsburgh is an excellent bedtime book--just keep a snack handy! (Ages 4 to 8).
Price: $3.26
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Mysteries of Pittsburgh: A Novel (P.S.)
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Out Of This Furnace: A Novel of Immigrant Labor in America
Out of This Furnace is Thomas Bell’s most compelling achievement. Its story of three generations of an immigrant Slovak family -- the Dobrejcaks -- still stands as a fresh and extraordinary accomplishment. The novel begins in the mid-1880s with the naive blundering career of Djuro Kracha. It tracks his arrival from the old country as he walked from New York to White Haven, his later migration to the steel mills of Braddock, and his eventual downfall through foolish financial speculations and an extramarital affair. The second generation is represented by Kracha’s daughter, Mary, who married Mike Dobrejcak, a steel worker. Their decent lives, made desperate by the inhuman working conditions of the mills, were held together by the warm bonds of their family life, and Mike’s political idealism set example for the children. Dobie Dobrejcak, the third generation, came of age in the 1920s determined not to be sacrificed to the mills. His involvement in the successful unionization of the steel industry climaxed a half-century struggle to establish economic justice for the workers. Out of This Furnace is a document of ethnic heritage and of a violent and cruel period in our history, but it is also a superb story. The writing is strong and forthright, and the novel builds constantly to its triumphantly human conclusion. .
Price: $7.00
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Dan Rooney: My 75 Years With the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL
In 2007, the Pittsburgh Steelers will turn seventy-five years old. So will Dan Rooney. In Dan Rooney, the owner talks about growing up on Pittsburgh’s North Side, competing with Johnny Unitas for top high school quarterback honors in western Pennsylvania, learning the ropes of big-time sports from his father and mentor, Art Rooney (“the Chief”), helping to shape the modern NFL into America’s all-consuming passion, and forging the Steelers into a Super Bowl-winning dynasty. He also speaks frankly about winning and losing, and discusses his relationships with family, coaches, players, owners, NFL commissioners, the media, and the fans-“Steeler Nation.” It’s all here: the difficult contract negotiations, controversial decisions, memorable teams, and many behind-the-scenes stories of the growth of America’s favorite game. A dedicated family man and proud native of Pittsburgh, this chairman of one of the most successful franchises ever reveals the dynamics that have made him such a respected owner in the NFL. .
Price: $6.16
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Linking Up: Planning Your Traffic-Free Bike Trip Between Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, DC - 3rd Edition
The trails of the Allegheny Trail Alliance connect with the C&O Canal Towpath at Cumberland, creating a traffic-free route between Pittsburgh and Washington DC. Although the final gap into Pittsburgh won't be finished for another year or two, the distance of 335 continuous miles on the ground make an outstanding bike trip. To help you plan this trip -- or a shorter trip along this route -- this book has brought together most of the information that you will need to plan your trip. This Third Edition (Aug 2007) is 48 pages and includes all of the information in the previous editions and more. The table of B&B, motels, restaurants and grocery stores has been updated. Several shorter itineraries have been added. In addition a mile by mile mileage table showing each mile and associated town has been added..
Price: $3.99
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Moon Pittsburgh (Moon Handbooks)
Former music editor for the Pittsburgh City Paper, Dan Eldridge provides a quirky look at Pittsburgh, from visiting the Andy Warhol Museum to grabbing a beer at a hipster bar in South Side. Eldridge includes unique trip ideas like "Go Where the Locals Go," "Fun and Cheap," and "Out with the Parents " Packed with information on dining, transportation, and accommodations, Moon Pittsburgh has lots of options for a range of travel budgets. Every Moon guidebook includes recommendations for must-see sights and many regional, area, and city-centered maps. Complete with details on the best insider spots in the city and how to make the most of two days in Pittsburgh, Moon Pittsburgh gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience. With expert writers, first-rate strategic advice, and an essential dose of humor, Moon guidebooks are the cure for the common trip. .
Price: $6.47
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The Best Game Ever: Pirates 10, Yankees 9: October 13, 1960
October 13, 1960: The hardscrabble Pirates were a hungry squad, led by Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski, and a colorful bunch of overachievers who hit singles and rode solid fielding and pitching to the franchise's first World Series appearance in 35 years. The Yankees, lordly and corporate, were making their 12th trip to the World Series in 15 years and, through the managing of Casey Stengel, power hitting, and immense talent, usually found a way to win. Featuring such legends as Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and Roger Maris, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates 46–16 through six games — only to go down, 10–9, when Mazeroski became the only player ever to decide a World Series Game 7 with a walk-off home run. From extensive personal interviews with those who were there, along with newspaper, radio, and television accounts, Reisler reconstructs this fall classic pitch by pitch, from analysis of managerial tactics and the chatter of the players on the field to the lively atmosphere within the ballpark and throughout the country. The result is the feeling of being right there from the seemingly predictable start to the truly unbelievable finish of the best game ever. .
Price: $9.37
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Questions About Angels: Poems (Pitt Poetry Series)
Billy Collins has a knack for making the familiar exotic and the arcane instantly accessible. His 1991 collection, Questions About Angels, is a loving and often amused search for "the infinite / permutations of the alphabet's small and capital letters." This phrase comes from an ode to his first literary experience--and needless to say, Collins is more honest than most of us might be. Though he would later discover "frightening Heathcliff" and "frightened Pip," and even Adam and Eve, fiction for him began with another famous pair: Dick and Jane. Throughout this witty volume, he explores other heroes who have expanded his vistas--including Goya, Kafka, ancient mapmakers, Constable, and more than one lexicographer in hot pursuit of le mot juste: Somewhere in the rolling hills and farm country
that lie beyond speech
Noah Webster and his assistants are moving
across the landscape tracking down a new word.
Collins makes you remember your initial delight in metaphor and simile. In "The First Geniuses," for instance, he imagines an era before "the orchestra of history / has had time to warm up," before inventors and artists could quite suss out how to use their gifts: They have yet to discover fire, much less invent the wheel,
so they wander a world mostly dark and motionless
wondering what to do with their wisdom
like young girls wonder what to do with their hair.
Though his world is heavily populated by painting and literature, several melancholy, cigarette-packed love poems make it clear that people have equal sway. Yet Collins is always intent on proving that art, too, is experience. In "Metamorphosis" he dreams of waking up as the 42nd Street branch of the New York Public Library. "I would feel the pages of books turning inside me like butterflies. / I would stare over Fifth Avenue with a perfectly straight face." No one should be surprised to discover that his wish was partly granted. In 1992, that institution named Collins--with a perfectly straight face?--a "Literary Lion." --Kerry Fried.
Price: $3.95
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