Alan Black

Read Alan Black and David Henry Sterry's posts on the Penguin Blog. A guide to the biggest sporting event in the world-for those who like their soccer with a side of kick-ass. The teams, the fans, the goals, the saves, the divas, the divers, the myths, the madness-they're all part of the world-wide spectacle that is soccer's ultimate tournament, and they're all here in this turbo­charged guide. Packed with trivia, tall tales, stats, quizzes, and photos, The Glorious World Cup gives readers: -Famous player profiles -Villains, heroes, hooligans, and hard men -On-field glory and off-field indiscretions -Underdogs, overachievers, maniacs, and miracles -Commentary from famous fans-including Irvine Welsh, Po Bronson, and Simon Kuper -A look back at the greatest World Cup finals

A "hilarious and utterly irreverent tale" (Irvine Welsh) of a year in the life of an abrasive pee-wee soccer coach Growing up in Scotland, Alan Black learned that soccer was no mere game; it was a matter of life or death. In this harshly hilarious tale, Black, a Glasglow transplant living in suburban California, coaches the Dragons, a peewee team that proves an embarrassment to his beloved sport. They're pampered. They're soft. They've been told by their overprotective parents that (gasp!) "winning isn't everything." Using drills and bombast, Black attempts to whip the team into shape. Kick the Balls is a sidesplitting memoir of grass stains and free kicks, a no-holds-barred account of one man's bafflement by an alien culture, and a stinging satire of American parenthood. Alan Black's voice-howling from the sidelines-is that rare thing: a fresh, original, winning comic talent.

Based on recent Australian research as well as years of hands-on experience by the authors in working with different types of communities, ""Building Stronger Communities"" is a very readable book that examines in a lucid and practical way means by which communities can be strengthened. The book differs from comparable volumes in that it includes extensive material on communities of interest, as well as those based on locality. The book includes useful principles and pointers for students, community workers, designated community leaders, policy makers and ordinary citizens. Each chapter includes a brief introductory overview and concludes with a set of review questions for reflection that will be useful for the individual readers and those using the work as a textbook.

Computational Morphology is the first book to present an integrated set of techniques for the rigorous description of morphological phenomena in English and similar languages. Previous work on morphology has largely tended either to avoid precise computational details or to ignore linguistic generality. Computational Morphology is the first book to present an integrated set of techniques for the rigorous description of morphological phenomena in English and similar languages. By taking account of all facets of morphological analysis, it provides a linguistically general and computationally practical dictionary system for use within an English parsing program. The authors cover morphographemics (variations in spelling as words are built from their component morphemes), morphotactics (the ways that different classes of morphemes can combine, and the types of words that result), and lexical redundancy (patterns of similarity and regularity among the lexical entries for words). They propose a precise rule-notation for each of these areas of linguistic description and present the algorithms for using these rules computationally to manipulate dictionary information. These mechanisms have been implemented in practical and publicly available software, which is described in detail, and appendixes contain a large number of computer-tested sets of rules and lexical entries for English.