Bücher von Mike Johnson

Do you think the game of soccer is powerful enough to stop a war?Indeed it is-it's happened several times in the history of the world's most popular sport-first, with the world's best player ever, Pelé from Brazil, in the late 1960s in Nigeria, and more recently with "Les Elephants" from Côte d'Ivoire in 2006. These legendary soccer stories are both here for your reading pleasure.And the best player to ever win the highly coveted World Cup? Now that Pelé has gone to a better place, maybe it's Lionel Messi (who overcame a severe growth deficiency as a kid) or perhaps his teammate Ángel di Maria (who bagged dirty coal with his dad before finally making it big). They're both here. In addition, you'll find inspiring soccer stories about:¿ Michelle Akers who rose above discrimination, injury, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, to lead the U.S. women to World Cup glory¿ Maybe the greatest longshot in the history of the European Championship, Greece, beating all odds in 2004¿ The Japanese women winning the 2011 World Cup, soon after their homeland was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami ¿ Maradona's rise from poverty to score "The Hand of God" goal and "The Goal of The Century" in the same 1986 game¿ Famous players who make a difference on the field, and in society, helping othersAll 12 inspiring stories are suitable for kids and teens, told in a fast-paced, informative style. You'll enjoy reading all about what makes certain soccer players and wheelchair-bound coaches truly unique.

Are you a fan of college and pro basketball?Do you appreciate the creativity and passion of the players on the court?Are you looking for inspiration to help push you forward?The game of basketball is played by many people all around the world. Because it is played almost universally, the game has become a playground for creative players finding new ways to dribble, pass, score, and defend. When creativity happens on the court, there can be some quite inspirational moments born.Basketball players are uniquely talented. The speed, precision, finesse and power required to be successful on both offense and defense make it a game that provides for lots of entertainment. Players are always looking for a way to outwit their opponents, whether it be a new dribbling move or a teammate getting open for a pass. Those elite players have made it to the top, and their stories will inspire you.The Inspirational Basketball Stories for Young Readers contains 12 true stories involving amateur and basketball players from all of basketball history. You'll encounter basketball players pushing the game to its limits, all while dealing with troubles of their own, and their tenaciousness will inspire you, too. Here are a few of the highlights included in this book:¿ LeBron James brings a championship home.¿ Bill Russell changes how defense is played forever.¿ One college team's Cinderella run for the ages.¿ Jimmy V inspires with the last moments of his life. The stories in this book will motivate and inspire basketball fans from all walks of life, like the young player shooting free throws at the playground, all the way up to the high school star. The stories in this book may also help explain how basketball stars can always push to the next plateau, even when their world is crumbling around them.No matter where the reader may be in their basketball journey, this book will bring happiness, through laughs or tears, to anyone who understands the difficulty of stepping onto the court for tipoff. It will inspire and motivate basketball players, showing them that a path forward is always possible, no matter the problems surrounding them.Grab a copy of The Inspirational Basketball Stories for Young Readers today and alley-oop it to a friend!

Afterworld is a novella length work of magical realism with a whodunit element. The plot follows a ghost who ends up in a hut on a NewZealand mountain. As the ghost seeks to understand their life and death, fragments of their past are remembered. Contending identities, times and events emerge.

A meaty and satisfying selection of the work of one of New Zealand's most preeminent and prolific poets, tracing the development of his work from the seventies to today 'Johnson is one of New Zealand's most accomplished and inventive writers, at one with the word, its power, its airy fitness and everyday solidities, its resourcefulness, its craft.' Siobhan Harvey, Winner of the Kathleen Grattan poetry award, 2019 'The immense complexity of human relationships, social, sexual and everyday are at the heart of much of Mike's best poetry. However, there's an almost equal pull towards the empyrean: the cosmic mysteries of nature and the visible world, the beauty of the birds, trees and beaches which surround him in his longtime home-base, Waiheke Island.' Jack Ross, editor of Poetry New Zealand (2014-2019) '[Johnson finds] just the right formulation to deliver a descriptive vitalism that is open, alert, tentative, ambulatory, elegant, palpable.' David Eggleton, Poet Laureate, 2019-2022

Harry Blackman lives in the suburbs with his wife and son and works a banal corporate job as a mid-level executive. One day he returns home from work to find that everything has changed. As he attempts to understand this strange yet maddeningly familiar new world and return to his old life, Blackman uncovers the dark secrets of his unscrupulous counterpart and finds there is more at stake than his identity.

Are you a fan of the game of ice hockey?Do you see the beauty that comes from the intensity that takes place on the ice?Are you in need of an inspirational story or two? As a sport, ice hockey is an intense battle waged by two teams over a sheet of rock-hard ice, but the battles and stories that happen off the ice can be just as intense. Because of that intensity, the people involved in the game often have to overcome obstacles that have nothing to do with the puck or the game itself. When that happens to a player with the world watching, those onlookers are inspired by the grit and tenacity the players demonstrate.Hockey players truly are special people. They have a set of skills unique to their game, and not all of them are physical. Mentally, hockey players have to be sharp and resilient. When those skills are put on display, crowds will marvel and cheer. But when tragedy strikes, those same skills prove to the world that moving forward is possible no matter what happens. Inspirational Hockey Stories for Young Readers contains 12 real-life stories involving hockey players and families from decades' worth of hockey history. You'll find players grappling with a range of situations, from cancer to disabilities and more, and their reactions are sure to inspire you to contend with whatever is causing you pain in your life. Some of the stories in this book include:Gordie Howe's resilient career.An emotional shutout from Craig Anderson.Jim Kyte's trailblazing career.How the first unofficial NHL All-Star Game came to be. This book is sure to motivate and inspire any hockey fan, from the young skater playing with friends up to the adult league champion. This book may also help the reader understand how a hockey player can find a way to move forward, even when their dreams are seemingly stripped away from them.Maybe there's a hockey player in your life who needs a boost in their life. Maybe they're struggling with their health, or there's conflict around them that they are unable to handle on their own. Or, maybe, you just know a hockey player who loves the history of the game and wants to read about 12 amazing players.Either way, this book is bound to bring a smile, or maybe even a few tears of happiness, to anyone who knows what it takes to play the game of hockey. It is sure to inspire hockey players and fill their hearts with pride that they play the toughest sport ever created.

Baseball's history is full of inspiring people and stories. Whether you're a player or a fan, the lessons in this book will help you thrive on the diamond and off it. Every time you watch or play in a baseball game, you learn something. Sometimes, you learn something about baseball. Other times, you learn something about life. The 12 inspirational baseball stories in this book provide a fast track to realizing the immutable secrets of success in both. Learn from some of baseball's greatest heroes and athletes, like Derek Jeter, Ichiro Suzuki, Ted Williams, Roberto Clemente, Jim Abbott, and, of course, Jackie Robinson. Find out their secrets to success and how to use their experiences to succeed in your own life. The purpose of these inspirational stories is simple: educate the next generation of baseball players and fans on the importance of hard work, setting and achieving goals, overcoming the odds, and defeating challenges. Within these pages you'll discover:¿ 12 inspirational stories that will change how you think about baseball and life.¿ Quotes and experiences from some of the best players to ever step on an MLB field.¿ Many of the mental secrets to success in the game of baseball.¿ Ways to connect baseball's history and inspirational lessons to your own life and experiences.¿ The importance of challenging yourself through hard work and goals.¿ A deeper understanding of why baseball is considered America's Pastime. With a detailed recounting of some of the game's most inspirational players, teams, and events, you'll be gripped from the first chapter to the last. Each section is full of player quotes, facts, and captivating details to help young and old baseball fans appreciate the significance of the most inspirational stories in baseball. This book contains all of the life lessons young baseball players need to both inspire and be inspired. If you follow the advice and knowledge from this book, you'll be on the correct path to reaching the MLB! For anyone that plays, watches, or just simply loves baseball, this book will reinvigorate your passion for the game and provide valuable lessons on navigating life's most challenging obstacles.

sketches:a trick of the eyeoutside my windowthere's a t¿¿slidingwith quick, deft movementsbetween the pink branchesof the spring plumwith a touch of white blossom at its throatThese are lines caught on the fly. Poems which capture and celebrate the momentary nature of existence. Here we find the natural world, and matters of the heart, caught as they happen in language both natural and precise. They are beautifully complemented by the drawing and sketches of Leila Lees.'Sketches, a skein of fleeting moments arrested on the page, manages with its glancing, darting reflections and philosophical perceptions, to find just the right formulation to deliver a descriptive vitalism that is open, alert, tentative, ambulatory, elegant, palpable.'

In ancient India the Buddha's chief disciple, Ananda, falls in love with a tender-hearted woman who makes him question the nature of desire. In our contemporary world, an anonymous hero set out across town for a mysterious interview, and meets, in the most unlikely form, his eternal lover. At the end of time, in deep space, the intrepid Captain Nortikiss must not only deal with aliens from another dimension, but do battle with a zombie in a spacesuit who loves him to death…

'Lethal Dose is the best novel Mike Johnson has written... a scathingly well-written novel. All the goodies are here: booze, sex, violence, brothels, anarchists, drugs, lesbians, vampires, angst, fast cars, Bergman pics, poison, humour and death. Everything yoüd expect to find in contemporary Auckland, New Zealand, in the last chance decade.'

From beneath the floor boards of an old abandoned hospital a stench is eminating. Small town New Zealand will never be the same again. Stench begins innocently enough, but grows into an intense and fantastic tale that will seize your imagination and refuse to let it go. This is Mike Johnson at his gripping and Gothic best. "a teen-flick horror movie set in small town New Zealand... a consummate performance." - The New Zealand Review of Books 2004

I¿ve got a little gift for you. I`ve kept it all this time. It¿s a funny little something that I wish was mine.For young children it begins with the sounds of words, and the delight of those sounds. Sounds come before meaning. Delight comes before sense. Silly nonsense turns into fun.These little poems sound good read aloud by an adult or older child, as their true audience is children who have not yet learned to read or are just learning. Simplicity reigns, and the rhythms are often based on familiar chants or nursery rhymes, making it easy for those reading aloud to pick it up.Nonsense poems are a much-neglected genre, but survive in our nursery rhymes, and in the work of some rare poets like A A Milne, who is an inspiration for this work. They are trickier than they look, as they can be as silly as, but not stupid. They can be surreal and bizarre, but not scary, at least too scary. They can allude to situations, but must not attempt to teach. And above all, they have to work as little songs, almost, with fun rhymes to hold them together.

Extinction Rebellion: A Tribute powerfully realizes the harsh reality of contemporary climate change. Spotlighting the vital issue of our times, the poems here lyrically explore the complexities of what it means to live on the brink of environmental ruin. Extinction Rebellion: A Tribute is rooted in the twilight years when the living faces death and the dead look back. The personal and the global come together in an upsurge of hope, despair and rebellion.

Dissemination of legume technologies to Sub-Saharan farmers by NGOs and research institutes has stimulated farmers to grow grain legumes, thereby providing farmers with substantial harvest and income. During the second quarter of 2012, N2AFRICA a project that provides farmers in Africa with technologies to grow grain legumes extended their project activities to Sierra Leone. N2AFRICA provided Sierra Leonean small scale farmers with the following grain legumes; groundnuts, cowpeas and soybeans, because these legumes are rich in protein and have the ability to fix nitrogen to the soil. After production some of these legumes are consumed by the farmers and the rest is sold. Therefore N2AFRICA decided to research the value chains of the mentioned legumes from inputs to the final consumer. This research investigates the value chains of the groundnut, cowpea and soybean in Sierra Leone.

SHEFFIELDSet against the backdrop of University life and a house in Sheffield. The story of three young men from different backgrounds who become friends. Freddy Forester with a love of History will seek adventure in a City steeped in Industry and Tradition. Alwyn with a desire to build things after he graduates will construct something very unexpected. A boat on a river. Sarinda from a family of Doctors born in India but raised in Sheffield. An arranged marriage by family tradition is thrown into doubt after his wife to be becomes a Bollywood Star!It all starts with a dog named Teacher. MANUEL's GUITARSet against a restaurant in Southern Spain. The story of Manuel and the guitar that brought him fame and fortune and a love named Henriette. A young boy will inherit the treasured possession and follow in his grandfather's footsteps.PADDY'S BAR(Somewhere in England).A village Green with an overgrown but not forgotten cricket pitch. An abandoned Pavilion seen better days and due for demolition. Until one day it is transformed into a quaint old Irish Pub. But who is the mysterious Paddy with his two stools and a bottle of magic?DOCTOR RON (The Entity)A non-sentient being comes to life after an encounter with Voyager One as it reaches the edge of the known Universe. Doctor Ron will take the Space Shuttle Saviour and its deadly payload to save the Earth from Extinction. What he finds will change his conception of the Universe.