The 9th book about Jack Reacher, written by Lee Child. Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into terror. But within hours the cops have it solved. A slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man claims: You got the wrong guy. After that, all he’ll say is: Get Reacher for me. Jack Reacher lives off the grid. Lone righter of wrongs, irresistible to women. What could connect the ex-military cop to this obvious psychopath?
Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is lying low in Key West, digging up swimming pools by hand. He is not at all pleased when a private detective starts asking questions about him. But when the detective, Costello, turns up dead with his fingertips sliced off, Reacher realizes it is time to move on.
In the on-going debate on gender in antiquity the Greek novel occupies a special place. This is a simultaneously reliable and fascinating insight into the kaleidoscopic world of male and female in the novels. Haynes shows that the strong heroines are best understood not as an undistorted mirror on an improved social reality, but as a type of "constructed femine." She situates the novelistic heroines within a continuing tradition of using the female image to say something about the male self and his aspirations. Rather than as "failed heroes" the males are revieled as promotinga particularly provocative brand of passive masculinity.
In the mid-70s, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. Born Standing Up is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away". At age 10 Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott's Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times: the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 60s, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the 70s.
What legitimate form can history take when faced by the severe challenges issued in recent years by literary, rhetorical, multiculturalist, and feminist theories? That is the question considered in this long-awaited and pathbreaking book. Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., addresses the essential practical concern of contemporary historians; he offers a way actually to go about reading and writing histories in light of the many contesting theories.
