Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job—Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy.At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average...

'When it comes to training for climbing, you are your own experiment.' Beastmaking by Ned Feehally is a book about training for climbing. It is designed to provide normal people – like you and me – with the tools we need to get the most out of our climbing. It is written by one of the world's top climbers and a co-founder of Beastmaker. It features sections on finger strength, fingerboarding, board training, mobility and core, and includes suggested exercises and workouts. There are insigh...

Jeremy Heere is your average high school dork. Day after day, he stares at beautiful Christine, the girl he can never have, and dryly notes the small humiliations that come his way. Until the day he learns about the "squip." A pill-sized supercomputer that you swallow, the squip is guaranteed to bring you whatever you most desire in life. By instructing him on everything from what to wear, to how to talk and walk, the squip transforms Jeremy from Supergeek to superchic.

WINNER OF THE SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2024 CYCLING BOOK OF THE YEARA WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023: SPORTNOMINATED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023'An absorbing mix of historical sleuthing and travel writing' -The Telegraph'[a] fascinating and often touching book… Wonderful' -The TimesWhen cycling commentator Ned Boulting bought a ...

Named one of the Top 10 Books of 2008 by The Times-Picayune.Winner of the 2009 Humanities Book of the Year award from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.Awarded the New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award for 2008.New Orleans is the most elusive of American cities. The product of the centuries-long struggle among three mighty empires--France, Spain, and England...

This entertaining history of Cuba and its music begins with the collision of Spain and Africa and continues through the era of Miguelito Valdés, Arsenio Rodríguez, Benny Moré, and Pérez Prado. It offers a behind-the-scenes examination of music from a Cuban point of view, unearthing surprising, provocative connections and making the case that Cuba was fundamental to the evolution of music in the New World. The ways in which the music of black slaves transformed 16th-century Europe, how the ...

'Paris, 4 July 2003: My first Tour de France. I had never seen a bike race. I had only vaguely heard of Lance Armstrong. I had no idea what I was doing there. Yet, that day I was broadcasting live on television. I fumbled my way through a few platitudes, before summing up with the words, "...Dave Millar just missing out on the Yellow Jumper." Yes, theYellow Jumper*.'*Follow Ned Boulting's (occasionally excruciating) experiences covering the world'...

Join Ned Boulting as he reports on his dozen-th Tour de France, an event in which blokes do amazing things on bikes, and, we’re oft told, the biggest annual sporting event in the world.101 Damnations is a chance to relive the 2014 race, stage for stage, fall after fall, tantrum by tantrum; just the good bits mind, without all the aerial shots of castles. Or sunflowers. (Though it does wax lyrical about some stunning Alpine scenery . . . and, with the race starting in Yorks...

Ned Boulting has noticed something. It's to do with bikes. They're everywhere. And so are their riders. Some of these riders seem to be sporting sideburns and a few of them are winning things. Big things. Now Ned wants to know how on earth it came to this. And what, exactly is 'this'.In On the Road Bike, Ned Boulting asks how Britain became so obsessed with cycling. Ned's search puts him in contact with some of the wonderful and wonderfully idiosyncratic people who have co...

A wide-ranging, powerful, alternative vision of the history of the United States and how the slave-breeding industry shaped itThe American Slave Coast tells the horrific story of how the slavery business in the United States made the reproductive labor of "breeding women" essential to the expansion of the nation. The book shows how slaves' children, and their children's children, were human savings accounts that were the basis of money and credit. This was...

Find yourself confused, nodding along when a rouleur relates how le biscuit was effrité (crumbled)? How today they’re feeling Angers (past caring)?Fear no more, for Boulting's Velosaurus will illuminate, enlighten and, frankly, mislead.In his Velosaurus, ITV Tour de France commentator and cycling writer Ned Boulting provides the ultimate lexicon of nonsense terminology surrounding the es...

THE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERShortlisted for the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards for 2019'A beautifully textured tour around the cheeseboard' Simon Garfield'Full of flavour' Sunday Times'A delightful and informative romp' Bee Wilson, Guardian'His encounters with modern-day practitioners fizz with infectious delight'