The Year of Ice: A Novel

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A real-male character.

One of the best novels I've read! And, I've read a LOT of them.

Wonderful first novel

Fairly slight.

A gem of a book

The Year of Ice: A Novel
Brian Malloy
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Gay | Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312313691

Book Description

It is 1978 in the Twin Cities, and Kevin Doyle, a high school senior, is a marginal student in love with keggers, rock and roll, and-unbeknownst to anyone else-a boy in his class with thick eyelashes and a bad attitude. His mother Eileen died two years earlier when her car plunged into the icy waters of the Mississippi River, and since then Kevin's relationship with his father Patrick has become increasingly distant. As lonely women vie for his father's attention, Kevin discovers Patrick's own closely guarded secret: he had planned to abandon his family for another woman. More disturbingly, his mother's death may well have been a suicide, not an accident.Complicating the family dynamic is the constant meddling of Kevin's outspoken Aunt Nora-who will never forgive Patrick for Eileen's death-along with Patrick's inability to stay single for very long. His loyalties divided between his father and his aunt, between his internal reality and his public persona, Kevin is forced to reevaluate his notions of family and love as painful truths emerge about both.

Customer Reviews:

A real-male character........2007-05-10

This book is one of the best gay novels I have read. The story tells of a gay high school students who dealing with the sexual frustration, being in the closet, a deceased mother, an irresponsible father, and more all within the mid 60's or 70's.

I found the main character's insight to the story to be quite comical. Many times
I burst into laughter from his aggressive/sarcastic thought process. I think that Brian Malloy has done an excellent job at creating the essence of a real boy (and I mean this gay or straight). The writing was excellent, an easy read, and quite enjoyable. This is a book that everyone should read once.

I never got tired reading this book. I did not feel that this book had any cliché themes that many gay novels seem to possess. This story is very tangible.

One of the best novels I've read! And, I've read a LOT of them........2007-05-09

Brian Malloy tells his story with simple words but memorable, wholly fleshed-out characters. He puts us inside the mind of Kevin Doyle, a 17-year-old Irish boy in Minnesota in the 1970's, who is gearing up for his eighteenth birthday and adulthood. In reading this story, I learned not only about Kevin's struggles to cope with late adolescence, but also about myself, as the story forced me to look back and re-examine my own late teen years. I'm a 23-year-old young black man in Georgia who is reading this, so that should tell you something about the story's universality. However, don't get the impression that it's a typical coming of age novel. It's hardly anything like the other books that have been put out there.

Apart from both being gay and both having been teenagers, I guess you could say on the surface-level that Kevin and I don't have that much in common. But, though our lives may have been lived quite differently, with different types of drama, I still see myself in this story. Malloy's talent is that he writes the way a 17-year-old boy would actually think. In this way, he appeals to a broad audience.

Malloy helps bring back youthful, vibrant memories of what it was like to once live at that age. Feelings of school daze and invincibility pour off the pages. Kevin, as we shall find, it just like any other teenager, only he's a little bit "different" in way that will soon be big and wild for him. But don't worry, the story doesn't center too much time around him being gay. The author does well in giving him a whole life apart from that.

The novel's material is appropriate for any 17-year-old, but it can be read by older adults. I don't want to give away the plot, but I will say this... It is one of the best novels I've ever read. The characters seem real and not like their serving in token roles. The author surprises you with the turn of every page and you never know what to expect. There are times when I laughed, times when I cried, and times when I felt angry.

Malloy has remarkable talent and thank him for writing this book and allowing me to have this experience. I'll definitely be getting a copy of his next book, whenever that comes out.

Wonderful first novel.......2007-05-08

Happy to see that Brian Malloy has a new book out, I had another run at "The Year of Ice," his first novel. I liked it as much on the second read. He has captured an authentic voice in the story--a gay 18-year old struggling to live a "normal" teenager's life, but finding it next to impossible with a psychotic father, eccentric aunt and assorted other characters that have staked out pieces of his heart and attention. This is one of the few gay coming of age stories that rings true in all ways, notwithstanding the dysfunctional relatives and friends that litter the protagonist's personal landscape. Desperately hoping to discover a roadmap for living that most young people--and particularly gay youth--long for and forced instead to ad hoc it, we leave him at the end of the book feeling that he will be one of life's winners despite all of the road hazards that have already been thrown in his way. Brian Malloy will have a distinguished career as a writer ahead of him if any of his subsequent stories match this first one.

Fairly slight........2007-03-15

I thought this book was fairly slight. It is an interesting enough read but does not really leave any lasting impression. It is reasonably well written but again I did not think it was anything beyond average.
I thought the character development was not particularly strong except for Aunt Nora, and sadly this character was not really explored or developed.

A gem of a book.......2007-02-06

In The Year of Ice, Kevin Doyle gives an account of the troubled year that he turns eighteen. Kevin is a good looking boy, well built, likes to think of himself as the alpha male, he's an average student and no angel who's quite capable of getting into trouble; a likeable and popular lad with both his peers and adults. However he has a problem, he likes guys in the way other guys like girls and has a crush on a fellow student, the beautiful Jon Thompson. Kevin is not sure if Jon likes guys or girls; but he lives in hope and in the mean time makes do with an imaginary Jon Thompson in the form of his pillow and with which he converses each night as he goes to bed.
Kevin lives with his dysfunctional father Pat; his mother was killed in a car accident two years ago. His good looking father is now vigorously pursed by all the neighbourhood widows. Pat had an affair with divorcee Carol Gunderson who's niece Laurie Lindstrom has a crush on Kevin. Kevin's bombastic Aunt Nora, his mother's sister, thinks Pat is a waste of space; she wants Kevin to live with her.
Kevin has a girl friend, Allison; it's a good camouflage for someone who likes guys. He has two good friends: his best friend the near delinquent Tommy, and Rick Foley.
Kevin thinks he is the only guy in the world who likes other guys that is apart from his English teacher Mr Hayes (nickname Fey Hayes, addressed by Kevin as Miss TerHaze).
Although naïve when it comes to what two guys who like each other do together, Kevin dreams of what it would be like to run his hands over another guy's body. When he meets Chuck, a twenty two year old student, he gets his hopes up, but much as Chuck likes Kevin, he is straight. However Chuck's unflinching acceptance of Kevin's sexuality gives him hope.
Kevin narrates the year's events frankly, holding nothing back. He tells the story with great and at times cutting wit and immense humour. The characters come over as vivid and believable, but it is Kevin who is the real star; thoroughly likeable, honest and loyal, capable of losing it at times when provoked, but large hearted and true to himself.
Brian Malloy's book is a real gem, extremely funny even when dealing with heartbreaking events; it is an absolute joy to read.

Average customer rating:

The Year of Ice: A Novel
Brian Malloy
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTIAF4

Book Description

If you want to avoid the traditional destructive bargaining methods employed in the majority of America's schools, this book is for you. An exploration of the win-win model and the compromises that must be employed before the model is to succeed, Streshly's book is eminently practical. Drawn from decades of personal experience as an administrator and superintendent, the book begins with the bread and butter of teacher's union issues--salaries and benefits. It continues to explain how to prevent strikes, how to get the school board behind the administration, how to utilize outside negotiators, and contains numerous checklists and tactical outlines.

Average customer rating:

Are they trying to be esoteric?

Gods of Thunder...

exquisite balance of accessibility and rigor

Positive Political Theory I: Collective Preference (Michigan Studies in Political Analysis)
David Austen-Smith , and Jeffrey S. Banks
Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Microeconomics | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0472087215

Book Description

Positive Political Theory I is concerned with the formal theory of preference aggregation for collective choice. The theory is developed as generally as possible, covering classes of aggregation methods that include such well-known examples as majority and unanimity rule and focusing in particular on the extent to which any aggregation method is assured to yield a set of "best" alternatives. The book is intended both as a contribution to the theory of collective choice and a pedagogic tool.

Austen-Smith and Banks have made the exposition both rigorous and accessible to people with some technical background (e.g., a course in multivariate calculus). The intended readership ranges from more technically-oriented graduate students and specialists to those students in economics and political science interested less in the technical aspects of the results than in the depth, scope, and importance of the theoretical advances in positive political theory.

"This is a stunning book. Austen-Smith and Banks have a deep understanding of the material, and their text gives a powerfully unified and coherent perspective on a vast literature. The exposition is clear-eyed and efficient but never humdrum. Even those familiar with the subject will find trenchant remarks and fresh insights every few pages. Anyone with an interest in contemporary liberal democratic theory will want this book on the shelf." --Christopher Achen, University of Michigan

David Austen-Smith is Professor of Political Science, Professor of Economics, and Professor of Management and Strategy, Northwestern University. Jeffrey S. Banks is Professor of Political Science, California Institute of Technology.

Customer Reviews:

Are they trying to be esoteric?.......2001-05-03

This is a rigorous text on social choice theory that is very helpful for graduate students. However, there is so little discussion on how different findings are applicable to the real world. Social choice theory raises important issues for political theory, but these are addressed minimally. A much better book for those who want to learn about social choice but without so much math is William Riker's Liberalism Against Populism.

Gods of Thunder..........1999-11-27

...and rock and roll. Austen-Smith and Banks rock so hard. THEY RULE

exquisite balance of accessibility and rigor.......1999-07-06

This book is a marvel. Austen-Smith and Banks have crafted a gem that should become standard fare for graduate-level study in political science.

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

The Official Polish Joke Book/the Official Italian Joke Book

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The Official Polish Joke Book/the Official Italian Joke Book
L. Wilde
Manufacturer: Pinnacle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 155817737X

Average customer rating:

More Official Polish/Italian Joke Book
Larry Wilde
Manufacturer: Pinnacle Books (Mm)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0523426070

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More Official Polish/Italian Joke Book

Manufacturer: Pinnacle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

More the Official Polish / Italian Joke Book

Average customer rating:

More the Official Polish / Italian Joke Book
Larry Wilde
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 0523406835

Product Description

200 pages

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The Official italian/polish Joke Book

Manufacturer: Pinnacle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0523007728

The Official Polish / Italian Joke Book (2 in 1)

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The Official Polish / Italian Joke Book (2 in 1)
Larry Wilde
Manufacturer: Pinnacle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GRET7C

Average customer rating:

Official Polish Italian Joke Book
Larry Wilde
Manufacturer: PINNACLE BOOKS INC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UDAMWS

Average customer rating:

Official Polish Italian Joke Book
Larry Wilde
Manufacturer: PINNACLE BOOKS INC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SEJ78O

Average customer rating:

The Official Polish Joke Book/The Official Italian Joke Book
Larry Wilde
Manufacturer: Pinnacle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JKECC8

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