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Three nights in August : strategy, heartbreak, and joy, inside the mind of a manager

Friday night lights : a town, a team, and a dream

The classic, best-selling story of life in the football-driven town of Odessa, Texas, with a new afterword that looks at the players and the town ten years later.. Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa--the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times, its murder rate skyrockets. But every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian High School Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true. With frankness and compassion, H. G. Bissinger chronicles a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires--and sometimes shatters--the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms.

A prayer for the city

Mayor Edward Rendell will do almost anything for Philadelphia. He will clean the bathrooms in City Hall, endure a joint appearance with Mickey Mouse, and personally lobby President Clinton to keep jobs in the city. He is that rare politician who is larger than life in his ambitions, compassion, and flaws - a man wise enough to see the comic absurdity of his job, yet crazy enough to think he can actually revive his declining city. To succeed, Rendell must negotiate a tough new contract with city workers who are threatening to strike and wreak havoc on the city. He must allay African-American leaders engaged in a zero-sum game of racial politics. He must combat the loss of tens of thousands of jobs that have brought the Workshop of the World to its knees. As Rendell and his brilliant chief of staff, David Cohen, fight these political battles, four citizens of Philadelphia engage in their own personal struggles, each one connected to events at City Hall. At turns heart-wrenching and hilarious, "A Prayer for the City" dramatically illustrates high-pressure politics and the threat of economic decline facing so many cities.