The searing novel of a brutal boyhood in 1940s Chicago—and a young man walking the knife's edge between a life of crime and a brighter future.The son of a single mother addicted to heroin, Richie grows up in poverty and hardship. His adolescence is a constant battle between hope—in the form of a kind boxing coach, a job in a bowling alley where he can sneak a nap, and a determination to track down his disreputable father—and brutality. Desperately lonely, Richie mu...

The decades-spanning saga of a woman's life in a family of prison wardens—and among the criminals they guard—by a Spur Award–nominated author.Dru is the daughter of a warden, the first in a long line keeping watch over a local prison. This multigenerational epic follows Dru's relationships and conflicts with men on both sides of the bars through the early twentieth century, when convicts were often treated brutally and lawlessness still lurked just under the surfac...

An " intense, deeply haunting" saga about love, money, and murder, set amid Nevada's mining and gambling booms ( Publishers Weekly).In the aftermath of World War I, three veterans—Mike, Jim, and Buck—meet a seductive woman named Ruby. Quick Silver follows all four over a span of decades, from Virginia City to Las Vegas, as their lives intertwine and intersect. It is a tale of marriage and infidelity, an orphaned boy and a forbidde...

Based off the popular website of the same name, Rock Your Ugly Christmas Sweater celebrates ugly Christmas sweaters year-round and showcases hilarious photos of people and pets wearing some of the ugliest holiday sweaters ever.More colorful than visions of sugarplums and jollier than a sleigh full of inebriated elves, ugly Christmas sweaters are a global holiday tradition celebrated by all ages and walks of life. With more than 200 photos, humorous captions...

Do you want to dissolve the effects of fake news on you and your loved ones? Want to be safe against cybercrime and attacks? Want to stop Russian meddling in elections? Want to shield your community from gangs and terrorists' ability to recruit? Want to better the world through social awakening? Want to do this morally, ethically, and legally?Are you sick of slickness and style winning over sober substance?Are you sick of Machiavellians getting their way through subversion ...

A Narrative Strategies Ink publication. The publishing arm of Narrative Strategies, Inc., a coalition of scholars and military professionals focused on the narrative foundation of large-scale conflict.For millennia defining strategic influence has felt like chasing ghosts.This short book defines the 'sport' and 'playing field' of strategic influence in national security.It looks to doctrine from 11th century BCE through today to define the nature of political and ps...

The Journey Home is an engrossing anthology of twenty essays. Each one tells a different story about what it means to grow up in the shadow of the Holocaust and then to find a way of breaking free of the residual darkness of childhood by making a physical and emotional journey back into the past, to the «home» of one’s ancestors: the «home» they were forced to physically leave.Some of these journeys are undertaken with a parent. Others are undertaken with friends or partne...

Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion brings together tales from the light and dark sides of steampunk. Living ghosts, walking ferns and ingenious androids populate visions of the city of Bristol at once familiar and peculiar. Above them soar magnificent men, and women, in their flying machines. Whether they are seeking release, revenge or adventure, the characters in these stories will draw you down the side-streets of Bristol to the brass and steam-filled worlds you never dreamed were there.

Science Fiction and Fantasy stories of STRANGEST ilk.Other Tales: Volume III contains eight bizarre and incredible tales of science fiction and fantasy, including the first ever Conan novella by Robert E. Howard, a science fiction story evidently about autism written in 1955, and an original Vonneguttian tale by author Robert Westley, writer of Natural Magic: A Helminverse Novel.Volume III contains stories by:Leigh Brackett...

50 Vintage Sci-Fi Short Stories 10: More Than 25 Hours of Classic Science FictionStep into the golden age of imagination with 50 Vintage Sci-Fi Short Stories 10. Featuring more than 25 hours of classic science fiction, this extraordinary collection brings together fifty unforgettable tales from the visionary authors who helped shape one of the world’s most beloved genres.Blast off on daring space missions, encounter mysterious alien civiliz...

A collection of short fiction, including an Edgar Award–nominated story, about hard-luck characters and the human instinct to survive.A survivor of Little Bighorn faces down the resulting trauma in the decades following the bloody battle. An old man who has lost his late wife's cat joins forces with an unlikely partner to rescue abused animals. An ex–racecar driver contends with criminals in the midst of the famous Dakar Rally. Challenge the Widow-Maker is...

The follow-up to Clark Howard's #1 New York Times bestseller, Living Large in Lean Times, offers no-nonsense financial tips for achieving lifelong prosperityAmericans from all walks of life are still feeling the roller-coaster effects of the Great Recession. For many, home values are still too low and unemployment is still too high. Others have prospered despite the ups and downs. In Clark Howard’s Living Large for the Long Haul, the reno...