Confessions Of A Country Boy

CONFESSIONS is a collection of stories from a practical joker that plays up the 'Ol' Country Boy' routine mainly for the benefit of the tourists. Many of the local people will identify with the players in these comedies and philosophical stories, as Motz is a practical joker and has been known to instigate many a misunderstanding, or to feign innocence to initiate a comic and embarrassing situation. An innocent in a world of hunters, fishermen and other liars, Motz goes out of his way to make you laugh, sometimes at his expense and often at the expense of others, who try to show how sophisticated they are. His first story about going hunting for raccoons and the misunderstandings which can occur is classic. For many years, Motz was a newspaper columnist and his humor is sometimes sarcastic, sometimes banal, sometimes self-edifying, sometimes quixotic, but never has it been dull. In many of the stories, morality suffers on the surface, only to emerge in some twisted and perverse manner later on. The often wry or cutting humor will make you read with concentration, for fear of missing some hidden fact or quirky twist of fate. You will laugh at times and you will just shake your head at others, but you will not find these observations and stories boring. And when you finally put this book down, you will reflect many times later on about how a single misunderstanding or double meaning can change a single story or single life. You will also have a deeper appreciation of the humor of a modern rural America, the world of the author.

These memories of a Norfolk childhood 50 years ago are sharp and witty, occasionally disrespectful, and always affectionate.

CONFESSIONS is a collection of stories from a practical joker that plays up the 'Ol' Country Boy' routine mainly for the benefit of the tourists. Many of the local people will identify with the players in these comedies and philosophical stories, as Motz is a practical joker and has been known to instigate many a misunderstanding, or to feign innocence to initiate a comic and embarrassing situation. An innocent in a world of hunters, fishermen and other liars, Motz goes out of his way to make you laugh, sometimes at his expense and often at the expense of others, who try to show how sophisticated they are. His first story about going hunting for raccoons and the misunderstandings which can occur is classic. For many years, Motz was a newspaper columnist and his humor is sometimes sarcastic, sometimes banal, sometimes self-edifying, sometimes quixotic, but never has it been dull. In many of the stories, morality suffers on the surface, only to emerge in some twisted and perverse manner later on. The often wry or cutting humor will make you read with concentration, for fear of missing some hidden fact or quirky twist of fate. You will laugh at times and you will just shake your head at others, but you will not find these observations and stories boring. And when you finally put this book down, you will reflect many times later on about how a single misunderstanding or double meaning can change a single story or single life. You will also have a deeper appreciation of the humor of a modern rural America, the world of the author.

Perkins, a former chief economist at a Boston strategic-consulting firm, confesses he was an "economic hit man" for 10 years, helping U.S. intelligence agencies and multinationals cajole and blackmail foreign leaders into serving U.S. foreign policy and awarding lucrative contracts to American business.

Redneck Boy in the Promised Land is Ben Jones’s hilarious, uplifting life story of escaping the rail yards and finding success in the unlikeliest places. As a child, Jones called a dingy railroad shack with no electricity or indoor plumbing home. An unabashed Southern redneck from a "likker drinkin’, hell-raisin’" family, Jones grew up in the depressed railroad docks outside of Portsmouth, Virginia, and spent most of his days dreaming about where the tracks out of town could take him. That he would go on to become a beloved television icon on The Dukes of Hazzard and a firebrand two-term Congressman is a story that no one could have ever seen coming . . . least of all ol’ "Cooter" himself. Written with naked honesty and wry humor, Redneck Boy in the Promised Land is one good ol’ boy’s remarkable tale of falling flat on his face, picking himself up, and finding his way to the American dream-while fighting for civil rights, the plight of the working class, "real" Southern culture, and the rights of rednecks everywhere. From the Hardcover edition.

A smart and hilarious memoir of privilege and excess told by the son of a powerful, seductive member of the New York elite. Ben Sonnenberg grew up in the great house on Gramercy Park in New York City that his father, the inventor of modern public relations and the owner of a fine collection of art, built to celebrate his rise from the poverty of the Jewish Lower East Side to a life of riches and power. His son could have what he wanted, except perhaps what he wanted most: to get away. Lost Property, a book of memoirs and confessions, is a tale of youthful riot and rebellion. Sonnenberg recounts his aesthetic, sexual, and political education, and a sometimes absurd flight into “anarchy and sabotage,” in which he reports to both the CIA and East German intelligence during the Cold War and, cultivating a dandy’s nonchalance, pursues a life of sexual adventure in 1960s London and New York. The cast of characters includes Orson Welles, Glenn Gould, and Sylvia Plath; among the subjects are marriage, children, infidelity, debt, divorce, literature, and multiple sclerosis. The end is surprisingly happy.

A childhood in a privileged household in 1950s Havana was joyous and cruel, like any other-but with certain differences. The neighbour's monkey was liable to escape and run across your roof. Surfing was conducted by driving cars across the breakwater. Lizards and firecrackers made frequent contact. Carlos Eire's childhood was a little different from most. His father was convinced he had been Louis XVI in a past life. At school, classmates with fathers in the Batista government were attended by chauffeurs and bodyguards. At a home crammed with artifacts and paintings, portraits of Jesus spoke to him in dreams and nightmares. Then, in January 1959, the world changes: Batista is suddenly gone, a cigar-smoking guerrilla has taken his place, and Christmas is cancelled. The echo of firing squads is everywhere. And, one by one, the author's schoolmates begin to disappear-spirited away to the United States. Carlos will end up there himself, without his parents, never to see his father again. Narrated with the urgency of a confession, WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA is both an ode to a paradise lost and an exorcism. More than that, it captures the terrible beauty of those times in our lives when we are certain we have died-and then are somehow, miraculously, reborn.

The New York Times bestselling and legendary author of Helen of Troy and Elizabeth I now turns her gaze on Emperor Nero, one of the most notorious and misunderstood figures in history. Built on the backs of those who fell before it, Julius Caesar’s imperial dynasty is only as strong as the next person who seeks to control it. In the Roman Empire no one is safe from the sting of betrayal: man, woman—or child. As a boy, Nero’s royal heritage becomes a threat to his very life, first when the mad emperor Caligula tries to drown him, then when his great aunt attempts to secure her own son’s inheritance. Faced with shocking acts of treachery, young Nero is dealt a harsh lesson: it is better to be cruel than dead. While Nero idealizes the artistic and athletic principles of Greece, his very survival rests on his ability to navigate the sea of vipers that is Rome. The most lethal of all is his own mother, a cold-blooded woman whose singular goal is to control the empire. With cunning and poison, the obstacles fall one by one. But as Agrippina’s machinations earn her son a title he is both tempted and terrified to assume, Nero’s determination to escape her thrall will shape him into the man he was fated to become—an Emperor who became legendary. With impeccable research and captivating prose, The Confessions of Young Nero is the story of a boy’s ruthless ascension to the throne. Detailing his journey from innocent youth to infamous ruler, it is an epic tale of the lengths to which man will go in the ultimate quest for power and survival.

This book has a twofold purpose. It provides future family members with a historical time line of the Bishop family while supplying references to the rural way of life. Persons wishing to learn about how life once was lived by country folks will find many facts about a lifestyle that has faded with time. Everyday life was filled with multiple activities long before multitasking was ever invented.