The narrative follows a naive young man from Detroit as he navigates the challenges of high school and college with little preparation. His impulsive decision to attend college leads to humorous misadventures and unexpected lessons in academia. A pivotal summer camp job profoundly impacts his life, culminating in a journey back to the camp for closure regarding a tragic incident from 1981. This heartfelt memoir, crafted over 25 years, captures the essence of growth, self-discovery, and the quest for healing.
England, says Matthew Engel, is the most complicated place in the world. And, as he travels through each of the historic English counties, he discovers that's just the start of it. Every county is fascinating, the product of a millennium or more of history: still a unique slice of a nation that has not quite lost its ancient diversity.He finds the well-dressers of Derbyshire and the pyromaniacs of Sussex; the Hindus and huntsmen of Leicestershire; the goddess-worshippers of Somerset. He tracks down the real Lancashire, hedonistic Essex, and the most mysterious house in Middlesex. In Durham he goes straight from choral evensong to the dog track. As he seeks out the essence of each county - from Yorkshire's broad acres to the microdot of Rutland - Engel always finds the unexpected .Engel's England is a totally original look at a confused country: a guidebook for people who don't think they need a guidebook. It is always quirky, sometimes poignant and often extremely funny.
The narrative follows a mobile wedding DJ from Northern Lower Michigan, sharing the humorous and challenging journey of building a DJ career from the ground up. It offers insights into the unique experiences encountered at various events, from ceremonies to late-night celebrations. The book combines personal anecdotes with entertaining stories about memorable characters met along the way, providing an engaging and relatable perspective on the life of a wedding DJ. Readers can expect a mix of humor and practical experiences without the typical instructional format.
Are we tired of hearing that fall is a season, sick of being offered fries and told about the latest movie? Yeah. Have we noticed the sly interpolation of Americanisms into our everyday speech? You betcha. And are we outraged? Hell, yes. But do we do anything? Too much hassle. Until now.In That's The Way It Crumbles Matthew Engel presents a call to arms against the linguistic impoverishment that happens when one language dominates another. With dismay and wry amusement, he traces the American invasion of our language from the early days of the New World, via the influence of Edison, the dance hall and the talkies, right up to the Apple and Microsoft-dominated present day, and explores the fate of other languages trying to fend off linguistic takeover bids. It is not the Americans' fault, more the result of their talent for innovation and our own indifference.He explains how America's cultural supremacy affects British gestures, celebrations and way of life, and how every paragraph and conversation includes words the British no longer even think of as Americanisms. Part battle cry, part love song, part elegy, this book celebrates the strange, the banal, the precious and the endangered parts of our uncommon common language.
'A tour de force about post-war Britain which delights and illuminates on every page.' David Kynaston The first part of Matthew Engel's sweeping social history of modern Britain during the reign of Elizabeth II. She came to the throne in 1952 when Britain had a far-flung empire, Winston Churchill was prime minister, sweets were rationed, mums stayed at home and kids played on bombsites. In the seventy years that followed everything changed utterly - except the Queen herself, ageing far more gracefully than the fractious nation with which she became synonymous. While the Queen is the motif for this book, the story Engel tells is not about her - it is primarily about the British. Through original research, interviews with people who were there and his own memories of the time, Matthew Engel traces the transformation of life in Britain as never before. Beginning with the death of King George VI and ending on the eve of Margaret Thatcher's election, Engel not only covers all the major historical events but also explores everyday life - from the food we ate and where we shopped, to what we watched on television and the newspapers we read.
