A dying man's poignant farewell gathers his oldest friends for a final beach celebration, blending humor and emotion. As they reminisce and confront their past, the novel explores themes of friendship, mortality, and the complexities of relationships. Through heartfelt interactions and witty dialogue, the story captures the essence of life's fleeting moments and the bonds that endure despite time's passage.
The Rough Guide to Cuba is the ultimate guide to the home of sun, salsa and rum. The guide introduces the best Cuba has to offer, plus you�ll find information on the hottest clubs and cafes and Cuba�s best bars, places to eat and beaches. Up-to-date and honest reviews will help you track down accommodation, with the most comprehensive list of casas particulares of any guidebook. There�s also detailed information on the country�s history, currency and music, plus the recent changes to the public transport systems and a comprehensive language section with cubanismos. Detailed maps will help you find your way around Cuba, with particular attention paid to the main visitor areas. Make the most of your time on earth with The Rough Guide to Cuba.
The story explores the unexpected connection between a single dad, Billy, and his teenage crush, former rock star Margot, who is struggling with her past fame. Billy enjoys his life as a music teacher and devoted father, while Margot grapples with loneliness after stepping back from the spotlight. Their worlds collide when Billy's son, Caleb, orchestrates a plan to bring Margot to perform at a local record shop, leading both adults to reassess their notions of happiness and love. This heartwarming romantic comedy highlights themes of connection, music, and personal growth.
Essential SQL fast provides a comprehensive guide to SQL, using the Windows-based version of MySQL. MySQL is a freely available, multi-platform database management system, making it ideal for learning the techniques and concepts of database design. Using numerous worked examples and illustrations, Matthew Norman describes how to set up the database management system MySQL. In doing so he covers various topics, installing and testing MySQL; using the graphical tools; database design techniques and concepts; retrieving, changing and deleting data; and how to make other products communicate with MySQL.
Tom Violet struggles with personal failures, including his sex life and the shadow of his successful father, who just won a Pulitzer Prize. As he juggles family chaos, work stress, and a potential affair, Tom's life spirals into a humorous yet painful pre-midlife crisis. Matthew Norman's debut delivers sharp wit and relatable struggles.
A couple determined not to end up like their divorced friends try a radical experiment—and get in way over their heads—in this hilarious, heartfelt novel from the author of We’re All Damaged.The Core Four have been friends since college: four men, four women, four couples. They got married around the same time, had kids around the same time, and now, fifteen years later, they’ve started getting divorced around the same time, too. With three of the Core Four unions crumbling to dust around them, Jessica and Mitch Butler take a long, hard look at their own marriage. Can it be saved? Or is divorce, like some fortysomething zombie virus, simply inescapable?To maximize their chance at immunity, Jessica and Mitch try something radical. Their friends’ divorces mostly had to do with sex—having it, not having it, wanting to have it with other people—so they decide to relax a few things. Terms are discussed, conditions are made, and together the Butlers embark on the great experiment of taking their otherwise happy, functional marriage and breaking some very serious rules.Jessica and Mitch are convinced they’ve hit upon the next evolution of marriage. But as lines are crossed and hot bartenders pursued, they each start to wonder if they’ve made a huge mistake. What follows is sexy, fun, painful, messy, and completely surprising to them both. Because sometimes doing something bad is the only way to get to the heart of what’s really good.
The Rough Guide to Havana is the ultimate guide to this lively city in Cuba. The full-color section introduces the best Havana has to offer. This first edition is full of informed descriptions and accurate listings of the best bars, restaurants and music venues to be seen at with maps and plans for every area. This guide also takes a detailed look at the history of Havana.From the Museo de la Revolución and other must-visit museums and galleries to splendid architectural gems including the Catedral de San Cristóbal,the Rough Guide steers you to the best restaurants, stylish bars & cafés, and hottest nightlife across every price range. The guide provides comprehensive coverage of hotels as well as private homestays, the best places to stay for an up-close experience of life in Cuba. Extensive coverage of the outer boroughs La Lisa and Marianao complements an unprecedented level of detail for the main four city neighborhoods, Habana Vieja, Centro Habana, Vedado and Miramar.
This book is aimed at giving the reader a working knowledge of ColdFusion. It provides instructional advice and explains how ColdFusion works with other web-based technologies. Plenty of working examples are included - also available on a website powered by ColdFusion. The author, Matthew Norman, has written a "get started quick" guide, which describes the setting up of a development system - he talks about how to achieve this on a budget, using techniques that are applicable to large scale operations. Anyone with a working knowledge of the Internet and who wants to learn more about what ColdFusion does and how they can start using it quickly will find this book invaluable.
INTRODUCTION Isolated from the Western world for over thirty years, Cuba burst back onto the international tourist scene in the early 1990s and hasn’t looked back since. Shaped by one of the twentieth century’s longest surviving revolutions, until recently Cuba’s image had been inextricably bound up with its politics. Even five decades after Fidel Castro and the rebels seized power, Cuba’s long satiny beaches, offshore cays and jungle-covered peaks – the defining attractions of neighbouring islands – played almost no part in the popular perception of this communist state in the Caribbean. Now, having opened the floodgates to global tourism, the country is changing and Cuba today is characterized as much as anything by a frenetic sense of transition as it shifts from socialist stronghold to one of the Caribbean’s major tourist destinations, running on capitalist dollars. Yet at the same time, it can seem to visitors that nothing has changed for decades, even centuries. Cut off from the capitalist world until the end of the Cold War, and only just emerging from a chronic economic crisis, the face of modern-day Cuba is in many respects frozen in the past – the classic American cars, moustachioed cigar-smoking farmers, horse-drawn carriages and colonial Spanish architecture all apparently unaffected by the breakneck pace of modernization, brought on by the country’s desperate need for dollars following the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Newly erected department stores and shopping malls, state-of-the-art hotels and entire resorts created from scratch are the hallmarks of this new, emerging Cuba. This improbable combination of transformation and stasis is symbolic of a country riddled with contradictions and ironies. In a place where taxi drivers earn more than doctors, and where capitalist reforms are seen as the answer to preserving socialist ideals, understanding Cuba is a compelling but never-ending task. Despite the hard-to-swallow favourable treatment of tourists and the crippling US trade embargo, there is surprisingly little resentment directed at foreign visitors, and your overwhelming impression is likely to be that Cubans are outgoing, sociable and hospitable, notwithstanding the queues, food rationing and restrictions on free speech. What’s more, in most of Cuba it’s difficult not to come into contact with local the common practice of renting out rooms and opening restaurants in homes allows visitors stronger impressions of the country than they might have thought possible in a short visit. The much-vaunted Cuban capacity for a good time is best expressed through music and dance, both vital facets of the island’s culture. As originators of the most influential Latin music styles, such as bolero, rumba and son, thereby spawning the most famous of them all – salsa – people in Cuba seem always ready to party. There are occasional reminders that Cuba is a centralized, highly bureaucratic one-party state, which can give a holiday here an unfamiliar twist. Naturally this becomes more apparent the longer you stay, but one of the quickest ways of finding out is when things go wrong. Going to the police, finding your hotel room double-booked or simply needing to make an urgent phone call can prove to be unnecessarily and frustratingly complicated. These are the times when you discover Cuba has its own special logic and that common sense doesn’t count for much here. This is not to say you’re more likely to experience mishaps in Cuba than anywhere else – not only are all the major resorts as well equipped as you might hope, but violent crime is remarkably absent from Cuban cities. On the other hand, a certain determination and a laid-back attitude are essential requirements for exploring less visited parts of the country, where a paucity of facilities and public transport problems can make! travelling hard work. Things are becoming easier all the time, though, with the introduction of more efficient bus services, simplified currency systems and a wider variety of consumer goods. Ironically, these improvements also mark an irreversible move away from what makes Cuba unique. Though the nation’s culture and character will always ensure that Cuba is more than just another island paradise, the determination to sell the country to a worldwide market means the time to go is now rather than later.
Andy Carter byl šťastný. Měl solidní zaměstnání, běhal pro charitu, vedl spokojený život. A pak ho opustila žena, přišel o práci a zkazil svatbu svého nejlepšího přítele. Přestěhoval se do New Yorku, kde žije v maličkém bytu s věčně nabroušeným kocourem Jeterem, který ani není jeho. Dozvídá se, že mu doma v Omaze umírá jeho milovaný dědeček, takže se musí okamžitě vrátit. V rodném městě je Andy nevyhnutelně konfrontován s nepříjemnou minulostí. Musí se vyrovnat s bolestí z rozchodu se svou životní láskou, kterou stále miluje, s radikálně konzervativními názory své matky, s manželskými problémy rodičů a se svým nejlepším přítelem, který mu ještě neodpustil.
