Tom Miller - Böcker

Havana knew me by my shoes," begins Tom Miller's lively and entertaining account of his sojourn for more than eight months traveling through Cuba, mixing with its literati and black marketers, its cane cutters and cigar rollers. Granted unprecedented access to travel throughout the country, the author presents us with a rare insight into one of the world's only Communist countries. Its best-known personalities and ordinary citizens talk to him about the U.S. embargo and tell their favourite Fidel jokes as they stand in line for bread at the Socialism or Death Bakery. Miller provides a running commentary on Cuba's food shortages, exotic sensuality, and baseball addiction as he follows the scents of Graham Greene, José Marti, Ernest Hemingway, and the Mambo Kings. The result of this informed and adventurous journey is a vibrant, rhythmic portrait of a land and people too long shielded from American eyes.

Richly detailed and full of engaging stories, this charming guide traces the history of Chicago's unparalleled architecture.Meticulously researched, engagingly presented, and richly detailed, Seeking Chicago is truly a must-read for anyone interested in the story of the Windy City and how it got that way. Unlike other books about local history, here Tom Miller reveals the stories of many smaller, more modest buildings that are off the beaten track - the very structures that most guide books overlook - along with the iconic landmarks.Chicago is possibly the most important American city for experiencing important architectural masterpieces. There are numerous ways to learn about its architectural heritage, from museums to curated walking and driving tours and even a boat tour. While the basic factual histories of Chicago's landmarks are fairly well known, there are additional layers of history - often with dramatic human interest angles - that don't always get included in the "official" tours. Tom Miller tells the story of Chicago's rich architectural and social history building by building. The stories behind the city's buildings is an impressive architectural history reading and a dramatic sampling of American social history--family feuds, scandals, and mob hits. He excels at uncovering the dramas that have unfolded within the architecture and detailing them to tell an engaging and largely unknown side of Chicago's history.

Twenty miles wide and two thousand long, the U.S.-Mexico borderland is a country unto itself that has been celebrated in the works of many writers and not just those who call it home. Here artists as disparate as Carlos Fuentes, Maya Angelou, and Allen Ginsberg have found literary inspiration, presenting the region through varied viewpoints that give border writing its unusual scope and texture. This wide-ranging anthology gathering short stories and essays, song lyrics and poems offers readers a new appreciation of the border and its literature. Residents of the region may be startled to learn how many passers-by have been struck by this unruly slice of North America, while those living in other parts of the country may be surprised to find it more than a dateline for reports of smuggling and illegal immigration. Collected here are both celebrated and underappreciated gems of American and Mexican literature depicting a region that for some writers represents an exotic land, for others home. Writing on the Edge juxtaposes passages by New Jersey poet William Carlos Williams and native songwriter Flaco Jimenez, British novelist Graham Greene and American poet Demetria Martinez, to show us the border from both sides and from a distance. In all of the selections, La Frontera looms larger than life an energizing force that frames the lives of the characters living within its boundaries. Included in the book is a literary map of the border highlighting the sites with which each author is identified. As editor Tom Miller observes, the very notion of literature in a region considered an ""irrelevant nuisance"" allows for more free-ranging creative output."" Writing on the Edge sparkles with such creativity and invites readers to enjoy the best of two worlds and of the world they share. ""http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/extras/Miller/BorderLitMap. pdf"">Print a literary map of the borderlands here!

By 2030, China's cities will be home to 1 billion people - one in every eight people on earth. What kind of lives will China's urban billion lead? And what will China's cities be like?Over the past thirty years, China's urban population expanded by 500 million people, and is on track to swell by a further 300 million by 2030. Hundreds of millions of these new urban residents are rural migrants, who lead second-class lives without access to urban benefits. Even those lucky citizens who live in modern tower blocks must put up with clogged roads, polluted skies and cityscapes of unremitting ugliness. The rapid expansion of urban China is astonishing, but new policies are urgently needed to create healthier cities.Combining on-the-ground reportage and up-to-date research, this pivotal book explains why China has failed to reap many of the economic and social benefits of urbanization, and suggests how these problems can be resolved. If its leaders get urbanization right, China will surpass the United States and cement its position as the world's largest economy. But if they get it wrong, China could spend the next twenty years languishing in middle-income torpor, its cities pockmarked by giant slums.

By 2030, China's cities will be home to 1 billion people - one in every eight people on earth. What kind of lives will China's urban billion lead? And what will China's cities be like?Over the past thirty years, China's urban population expanded by 500 million people, and is on track to swell by a further 300 million by 2030. Hundreds of millions of these new urban residents are rural migrants, who lead second-class lives without access to urban benefits. Even those lucky citizens who live in modern tower blocks must put up with clogged roads, polluted skies and cityscapes of unremitting ugliness. The rapid expansion of urban China is astonishing, but new policies are urgently needed to create healthier cities.Combining on-the-ground reportage and up-to-date research, this pivotal book explains why China has failed to reap many of the economic and social benefits of urbanization, and suggests how these problems can be resolved. If its leaders get urbanization right, China will surpass the United States and cement its position as the world's largest economy. But if they get it wrong, China could spend the next twenty years languishing in middle-income torpor, its cities pockmarked by giant slums.

"China", Napoleon once remarked, "is a sleeping lion. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world." In 2014, President Xi Jinping triumphantly declared the lion had awakened. Under his leadership, China is pursuing a dream to restore its historical position as the dominant power in Asia.From the Mekong River Basin to the Central Asian steppe, China is flexing its economic muscles for strategic ends. By setting up new regional financial institutions, Beijing is challenging the post-World War II order established under the watchful eye of Washington. And by funding and building roads, railways, ports and power lines—a New Silk Road across Eurasia and through the South China Sea and Indian Ocean—China aims to draw its neighbours ever tighter into its embrace.Combining a geopolitical overview with on-the-ground reportage from a dozen countries, China’s Asian Dream offers a fresh perspective on the rise of China’ and asks: what does it means for the future of Asia?

In 1986, Rangers FC made a bold move that changed Scottish football forever. The appointment of Graeme Souness as player-manager marked the end of a nine-year title drought and the beginning of a new era atIbrox. Backed with serious investment and a clear mandate, Souness won the league in his first season and reignited the club's ambition.This book revisits that transformative period, when Celtic, Aberdeen and Dundee United were the dominant forces. With fresh insight from Rangers legends such as Terry Butcher, Ian Durrant and John Brown, and reflectionsfrom rivals including Souness's former international teammate Alan Rough, we explore the battles on the pitch and the drama behind the scenes. Former Rangers player and then-Hearts boss Alex MacDonald also shareshis memories of how his old club changed almost overnight.Forty years on, we uncover stories never told before, with Souness himself at the heart of it. Featuring a foreword by iconic captain Richard Gough, and a postscript from Rangers record goal scorer Ally McCoist, this is a compelling look at the revolution that reshaped Rangers. As Ian Ferguson put it, 'I could have gone to Man Utd., but when Souness trapped up at Ibrox, there was only one destination for me.'

In 1986, Rangers FC made a bold move that changed Scottish football forever. The appointment of Graeme Souness as player-manager marked the end of a nine-year title drought and the beginning of a new era atIbrox. Backed with serious investment and a clear mandate, Souness won the league in his first season and reignited the club's ambition.This book revisits that transformative period, when Celtic, Aberdeen and Dundee United were the dominant forces. With fresh insight from Rangers legends such as Terry Butcher, Ian Durrant and John Brown, and reflectionsfrom rivals including Souness's former international teammate Alan Rough, we explore the battles on the pitch and the drama behind the scenes. Former Rangers player and then-Hearts boss Alex MacDonald also shareshis memories of how his old club changed almost overnight.Forty years on, we uncover stories never told before, with Souness himself at the heart of it. Featuring a foreword by iconic captain Richard Gough, and a postscript from Rangers record goal scorer Ally McCoist, this is a compelling look at the revolution that reshaped Rangers. As Ian Ferguson put it, 'I could have gone to Man Utd., but when Souness trapped up at Ibrox, there was only one destination for me.'

‘China’, Napoleon once remarked, ‘is a sleeping lion. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world.’ In 2014, President Xi Jinping triumphantly declared that the lion had awoken.From holding its ground in trade wars with the US, to presenting itself as a world leader in the fight against climate change, a newly confident China is flexing its economic muscles for strategic ends. With the Belt and Road initiative, billed as a new Silk Road for the 21st Century, China is set to extend its influence throughout Eurasia and across the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. But with the Chinese and US militaries also vying over the Pacific, does this newfound confidence put China on a collision course with the US?Combining a geopolitical overview with on-the-ground reportage from a dozen countries, this new edition of China’s Asian Dream engages with the most recent developments in the ongoing story of China’s ascendency, and offers new insights into what the rise of China means not only for Asia, but for the world.

Jim Baxter - the legendary 'Slim Jim' - was arguably Scotland's greatest-ever footballer, a left-footed genius who became a Rangers icon and helped Scotland humiliate world champions England at Wembley in 1967 - with some famous keepie-uppie along the way. And although much has been written about Slim Jim over the years, the real story behind his life is now revealed for the first time. When Jim Baxter joined Rangers in 1960 for a record fee of £17,500, he quickly proved his worth, helping the team to ten trophies over the next five years. It was the start of a glittering career and a hard-drinking, hard-living lifestyle in the big city, where he fully enjoyed the fruits of his success. But behind the glamour on and off the park, Jim Baxter hid a secret that would torment him for most of his life, a secret he only discovered the full truth about when he was fifty years old. What is beyond doubt is that Slim Jim Baxter will forever be revered for his unbelievable footballing talent. He will also be remembered for his ability to live life to the full and beyond. But had he uncovered the truth earlier about the family secret that left him shattered, the life of this footballing genius might have been very different both on and off the pitch.

From revolution to embargo, from the charms of old Havana to the beaches of the Bay of Pigs, from the hypnotic rhythms of Caribbean music to voodoo influences, Cuba is a country of passion and complexity, a political dinosaur on the verge of dramatic change. Travelers’ Tales Cuba is an eye-opening literary ensemble, in which Cuba emerges with all its strengths and weaknesses, convictions and contradictions.In Travelers’ Tales Cuba:• Swivel your hips with Stephanie Elizondo Griest as she dances with Havana’s mistress of rumba• Pick up hitchhikers with Dave Eggers and meet the starting center for the Cuban women’s national basketball team• Feel the heartbeat of Cuba on late night musical excursions with Henry Shukman• Learn the Cuban secret to life—making the most of what you have—with Cristina Garcia• Join Patrick Symmes on his search for the Ernesto "Che" Guevara legend• Glimpse the quirks, charm, and creativity of Cubans on an unusal bus ride with Eduardo Galeano... and much more.