Pucci Riddle is not your average freelance journalist and blogger. Along with a zest for life and a deep knowledge of craft-made liquors, she was born with an unusual gift: she sees ghosts. Though her psychic abilities often interfere, Pucci tries to live a normal life. Let''s face it: Who would want to date a woman who talks to dead people? When Pucci goes to Grand Cayman for a working holiday, she is surprised by a ghost at a rum tasting. It quickly becomes clear that the ghost wants her help to solve a murder. Pucci has never solved a murder before, but she''s not the kind of woman who backs down from a challenge. After she innocently tells the police the location of the body- and becomes a suspect in the murder- Pucci enlists the help of an old flame, a detective from Scotland Yard. Together they set out to solve the mystery before them, a trail- strewn with kidnappings, riddles, sunken ships-that will lead them to hidden treasure, perhaps the greatest hoard ever found on British soil. But Pucci and her allies must make haste. Not only are the police after her. The Dark Entities and the ruthless Shadow Man are hot on her trail.
What happens when a small group of friends gathers for a six-day retreat, hosted by a charismatic channel and healer at her family''s historic adobe hacienda, set atop an ancient Native American site in rural New Mexico? Sarabeth and The Five Spirits is a novel about channeling, consciousness, healing, and murder-magical realism interwoven with ancient wisdom and intrigue. As the retreat begins, each member of the group sets out on an inner journey that will reset their understanding of the tapestry of life, and their rightful place within it. With Sarabeth as their conduit, they are presented with Astral-spirit guides, mythical heroes, wisdom from ancient cultures, and strange, unsettling dreams. Meanwhile, explosive revelations and unthinkable real-time events challenge Sarabeth herself to rethink everything she has ever known. Sarabeth and The Five Spirits shows how individuals choose their own destinies, how lives are inextricably woven together, and how human choice can result in peace and harmony . . . or death. As the days pass, and the retreat heads to its unimaginable conclusion, lives are forever changed.
Set during the 13th century, Edge of Armageddon is the stirring climax in the Brotherhood of the Mamluks trilogy. The story brings together characters from Books 1 and 2: Duyal, the enslaved nomad boy who rose to command a reconnaissance unit; Leander, the French soldier who abandoned the Crusades to join the devout Islamic warriors he admired, and Baybars, a Kipchak from the Eurasian steppe who is now the charismatic leader of the elite Bahri Mamluks of Egypt. The novel introduces us to Esel, a respected bowmaker in her nomadic tribe who is seized, enslaved, and sold to a wealthy arms merchant in Syria. Overhearing her master plotting against Baybars, a nephew she has not seen since his adolescence, Esel risks her life to flee Damascus and warn Baybars of the coming betrayal. Embraced in Baybars'' camp, Esel plunges into the hazard and intrigue surrounding her ambitious nephew. Soon, she is aiding Baybars in his quest to win the sultanate and countering the efforts of a female spy who stalks the roving Bahri. Tension builds as the Mongol army slashes a bloody path through Mesopotamia and northern Syria, eyeing Cairo as its prize. In a fateful battle on the wide plain just east of the biblical site of Armageddon, Egypt''s Mamluks come face-to-face with the seemingly unconquerable Mongols, who sacked their Kipchak tribes twenty-four years prior. At stake for Esel and the Mamluks is the survival of their people, preservation of their fledgling empire, and the continuance of Islam itself. A gripping tale of betrayal and love, retribution, mercy, abandonment, and redemption, Edge of Armageddon is also a compelling account of the historical Battle of Ayn Julut-an unheralded clash whose outcome leaves crucial repercussions still felt today. Author Graft, a former U.S. Marine officer, conveys to his characters an authentic understanding of combat and fighting men. His inspiration for the book started with the history of the Mamluk Sword, the saber worn traditionally by Marines as part of the dress uniform. Based on exhaustive research that took the author to Mongolia and the Middle East, the book is filled with vivid cultural details and battle accounts.
On Peter Kravitz'' first day as a teacher in an inner-city New York public school, a veteran principal taught him the mantra that would carry him through his next thirty-two years in front of classes: Treat the children as if they were your own. Those nine words got Kravitz-"Krav" to his students-through three firings in one year, a banishment to the library, countless teenage dramas, a few tragic deaths, the impacts of 9/11 and Columbine on schools, dozens of high school journalism awards, and many, many visits to the principal''s office. Krav''s path to teaching was a crooked one. During his college years, the Division 1 college wrestler was infected with a difficult-to-diagnose virus and found himself committed to a treatment facility for mental illness. In time, forever changed by his experience, Kravitz resumed his trip along life''s road. He returned to college and ditched his accounting major. He met his future wife, Jennifer, and the pair lit out for adventures in Paris and elsewhere. After a short stint in journalism, he went into teaching. His proving ground: three of New York''s roughest Brooklyn High Schools. As Kravitz struggled to help his students (and himself) to survive and thrive, he eventually found his footing in a Long Island high school as a teacher, coach and mentor, earning a reputation as a cool but effective educator with a permanent place in the hearts of many of his students and colleagues. Of course, Krav didn''t get there without breaking a few rules, aggravating a few administrators, and introducing a few readings that may not have been in the approved curriculum . . . but what cool teach doesn''t?
When Jimmy Nail reads a bestselling novel, The Left-Handed Girl, he recognizes it immediately. It's The Allergic Boy, a novel he wrote in college before his life went south. Will anyone believe him?
Two weeks before the biggest trial of his career, Memphis attorney Ben Jennings is on the brink of implosion. Juggling needy clients, an ex-wife, a spendthrift partner, tricky single fatherhood, and the inevitable vicissitudes of fate, Jennings takes on the powerful medical establishment to fight for justice in a tragic case of a newborn''s mismanaged care.Set in Memphis, Tennessee, Holes in the Soles of His Gucci Loafers is a courtroom drama that does side duty as a travelogue, taking the reader on a journey through tree-lined streets, lovely historic neighborhoods, and hole-in-the-wall BBQ joints of a town bisected and defined by the mighty Mississippi River. Beneath the city''s charm, however, are the unspoken truths of a centuries-old class system that extends to all corners of life . . . and the law.Holes in the Soles of His Gucci Loafers is the first book in the Ben Jennings Legal Thriller series. Written by Bill Walk, a long-time attorney from Memphis, the novel pulls back the curtain on the lives of high-stakes trial lawyers. Fans of Scott Turow and John Grisham will enjoy this fresh take on the men and women who fight for the little guy. Bill Walk is a trial lawyer who specializes in advocacy for persons who have suffered serious injuries due to the medical system. He is married to Margaret Walk and has four children.
Senlac is a two-part historical novel that brings to life the turbulent period leading to the Norman conquest of England in 1066, when the English were forced to defend the kingdom against invasions by both the Normans and the Vikings. The book is named for the hill upon which the final defense was mounted. The results would dramatically change the course of history.Senlac, Book One, opens during Christmas, 1065, a time of grave national crisis and disquieting omens in England, when the aged King Edward the Confessor, the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready, dies in the Palace of Westminster in London. Even as a successor is crowned by popular acclaim, King Harold II faces attack from two formidable neighbors: the Viking army of Harald Hardraada, and the Norman forces lead by William the Conqueror. Also in play is Harold''s own exiled younger brother, Tostig, who is bent on revenge against the King who banished him.​In Book Two of Senlac, the inevitable happens; forces are engaged in violent, bloody war. Each of the three powerful leaders are forced to the very limit of their abilities and resources as they fight to achieve their ambitious goals. The result is the tragic year of The Three Battles, the death of thousands of warriors and common people conscripted for the carnage, and the destruction of a whole way of life. Nothing will ever be the same. Carefully researched and re-imagined by Londoner and first-time novelist Julian del la Motte, Senlac turns the dust of history into living flesh and emotion. "It might just be the best historical fiction you''ll ever read," says Charles McNair, who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel, Land O'' Goshen.
When affable computer salesman Sid Straw sends an innocent letter requesting an autographed photo from his former college classmate, the popular and cultish Hollywood actress Heather Locklear (Melrose Place, Spin City), he has no idea that his life will soon be spiraling out of control-costing his job, draining his finances, foiling his romantic designs on a co-worker, and leaving his entire world in ruins . . . Until he decides to fight back. Told through a series of one-sided correspondences with the television star, his bosses, his girlfriend, and various lawyers and PR representatives, Eat Wheaties! is a farcical look at celebrity in today''s society. A charming, laugh-out-loud novel (originally published as The Locklear Letters), Eat Wheaties! has been adapted for a major motion picture starring Tony Hale (Veep, Arrested Development), Elisha Cuthbert (24, Happy Endings), Paul Walter Hauser (Da 5 Bloods, Richard Jewell), Danielle Brooks (Orange Is The New Black), Alan Tudyk (Dodgeball, Firefly) and Sarah Chalke (Scrubs, Roseanne).
Senlac is a two-part historical novel that brings to life the turbulent period leading to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. A bloody war, fought at close hand and on horseback with sword and battle-axe, the English were forced to defend the kingdom against invasions by both the Normans and the Vikings. The book is named for the hill upon which the final defense was mounted. The results would dramatically change the course of history.Senlac, Book One, opens during Christmas of the year 1065, a time of grave national crisis and disquieting omens, when the aged King Edward the Confessor, the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready, dies in the Palace of Westminster in London. He leaves behind no heir.To fill the void, Edward''s brother-in-law, Harold, the Earl of Wessex and the greatest warrior in England, is hurriedly elected king by popular acclaim. Harold desperately seeks to unify a kingdom ravaged by the Danish occupation, and by unrest on both the Scottish and Welsh borders.In order to ensure military support in the north, Harold must turn his back on his beloved common-law wife, Edith the Fair-also known as Edith Swanneck, for the graceful length of her neck-and their children to marry Aeldyth, the sister of both the Earl of Northumbria and the Earl of Mercia. Meanwhile, Harold''s mercurial younger brother, Tostig, is bitterly plotting a return from exile and revenge against the King.Across the North Sea, the King of Norway, the aging and psychotic Harald Hardraada, who was said to be a full seven feet tall, dreams of a new Viking Empire on English soil, and strikes an alliance with Tosig. And across the English Channel, William, Duke of Normandy-the leader of a powerful yet unstable military state-plans his own attack, determined to avenge Harold''s broken promise to make England his.Carefully researched and re-imagined by Londoner and first-time novelist Julian del la Motte, Senlac turns the dust of history into living flesh and emotion. "It might just be the best historical fiction you''ll ever read," says Charles McNair, who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel, Land O'' Goshen.
Chris Erskine is the master of domestic dramedy.For three decades in the Los Angeles Times, Erskine''s columns explored modern fatherhood and family life, from the absurd to the mundane, the sublime to the heartbreaking. Now, with Lavender in Your Lemonade: A Funny and Touching COVID Diary, he tackles the New Normal with his chronicle of daily life under the frustrating, terrifying, and sometimes antic strictures of a world-wide pandemic.No, it''s not funny. And yet somehow, in Erskine''s hands, it is.Or at least it feels more tolerable.With elegant prose and an eye for telling detail, Erskine draws simple truths from the infinite complexities of the human condition, eight hundred words at a time. In the great tradition of Erma Bombeck, Mike Royko, Dave Barry, and Bob Greene, Erskine shows us ourselves in a funhouse mirror.
Some say he was a breakthrough academic and visionary shaman. Others say he was a sham. Either way, Carlos Castaneda shaped a generation of mystical thinkers and magic mushroom eaters.In 1968, at the height of the psychedelic age, Castaneda published The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, the first of twelve books describing his apprenticeship to an Indian shaman, and his journeys to the "separate reality" of the sorcerers'' worlds.Like Herman Hesse''s Steppenwolf and Aldous Huxley''s The Doors of Perception, The Teachings of Don Juan and its sequels became essential reading for legions of truth seekers. Castaneda himself became a cult figure-seldom seen, nearly mythological, a cross between Timothy Leary and L. Ron Hubbard: a short, dapper, Buddha-with-an-attitude who likened his own appearance to that of a "Mexican bellhop."Though Castaneda had more than ten million books in print in seventeen languages, he lived in wily anonymity for nearly thirty years, doing his best, in his own words, to become "as inaccessible as possible." Most people figured he had a house somewhere in the Sonoran Desert, where he''d studied with his own teacher, a leathery old Indian brujo named Don Juan Matus.In truth, Castaneda lived and wrote for most of that time in Westwood Village, a neighborhood of students and professors in Los Angeles, not far from UCLA and Beverly Hills. Upon his death in 1998, things became even more murky.A year-long investigation into the mysterious life and impeccable death of Carlos Castaneda, as told by his wife, his adopted son, his mistresses, and his followers.
Now with new cover, new interior art, and vintage movie posters added."John Holmes was every man''s gigolo, a polyester smoothie with a sparse mustache, a flying collar, and lots of buttons undone. He wasn''t threatening. He chewed gum and overacted. He took a lounge singer''s approach to sex, deliberately gentle, ostentatiously artful, a homely guy with a pinkie ring and a big dick who was convinced he was every woman''s dream." -from "The Devil and John Holmes."John Curtis Holmes had the longest, most prolific career in the history of pornography. He had sex on-screen with two generations of leading ladies, from Seka and Marilyn Chambers to Traci Lords, Ginger Lynn, and Italian Member of Parliament Cicciolina. The first man to win the X-Rated Critics Organization Best Actor Award, Holmes was an idol and an icon, the most visible male porn star of his time.Holmes started in the business around 1968 and made more than two thousand movies. But after descending into a world of drugs and crime, he became the central figure in one of the most publicized mass murders in L.A. history, the 1981 Wonderland Avenue killings in Laurel Canyon, in which four people were brutally bludgeoned to death. Holmes was tried and acquitted of the crimes in 1982. He died from complications of AIDS on March 13, 1988.Read the story that inspired the movies Boogie Nights, with Mark Walhberg, and Wonderland, with Val Kilmer and Lisa Kudrow. Now with restored edits, updated information, new cover and interior art by Austraila''s famous illustration team WBYK, and photos of old Holmes movie posters. The collection includes three bonus stories. "Little Girl Lost," about the life and death of beautiful porn starlet Savannah, among the first of the Vivid Girls; "Deviates in Love" about swingers and amateur porn; and "The Porn Identity," about a divorced man''s search for retired porn starlets in an effort to get his mojo back.
Named to Kirkus Reviews'' Best Books of 2020.The Orphan''s Daughter is a novel about a girl who grows up in the shadow of her charismatic but troubled father, a man shaped by his boyhood in a Depression-era Jewish orphanage. The two life stories are woven together to form the fabric of this funny and suspenseful work of literary fiction.Clyde Aronson survives the cruelties of the seemingly bucolic orphanage but is left scarred. Brilliant and self-destructive, a popular high-school teacher and a callous womanizer, he yearns for a son to replace the relationship lost when his father abandoned him. Instead, he fathers two daughters. He resents most the one who most resembles him: the younger, Joanna.Joanna Aronson is thirty, alienated, and living in Southern California when she learns of her father''s puzzling illness. She returns home to Baltimore to help care for him. In the process, the two reconcile; Joanna struggles to come to terms with her own difficult history. Clyde promises to leave Joanna his collected papers, including a secret manuscript written long ago about life in the orphanage. After Clyde''s death, Joanna''s stepmother inherits the house and all of his possessions. She refuses Joanna any access. Determined, Joanna breaks into the house and steals the manuscript. The stepmother presses charges. Though fictional, The Orphan''s Daughter is based upon the time, from 1924 to 1934, the author''s father spent in the Hebrew National Orphan Home in Yonkers, New York.This evocative novel incorporates contemporary feminist themes, Jewish cultural history, and a nostalgic sense of place. By turns wrenching and delightfully humorous, The Orphan''s Daughter is a deft melding of history and psychological drama, a literary page-turner you won''t want to put down.
Arnie Pepper is having the worst day of his life. The Pulitzer-prize winning sports columnist for the Washington Post has lived a thrilling, prestigious and (mostly) blameless existence over nearly four decades of rubbing shoulders with athletic royalty at all the most prestigious sporting events of our times. Then one day, within the confines of an impromptu gathering of fellow reporters, he tosses out a characteristic one-liner. Overheard and subsequently posted on social media, his joke goes viral. The ensuing hurricane of condemnation threatens to take his job and reputation, alienate his daughter, and decimate his obsessively observed inner world.#MeAsWell is the second novel from Peter Mehlman, an essayist, artist, comic, filmmaker, and longtime writer/producer for the iconic television show Seinfeld. At once surreal and too real, laughable and on point, the novel examines the inner and outer turmoil that results when a well-meaning but iconoclastic public figure, having failed to update his cultural operating system, unwittingly runs afoul of the new rules of woke America.In everyday interactions, and especially in his popular columns, Pepper’s sense of humor has always been his fortune—the gateway to a comfortable life as a journalist and enriching friendships with everyone from Billy Jean King to Barack Obama. An early proponent of Title IX–and a devoted single father of a daughter–Pepper has long been a champion of women’s sport. But now, despite his best intentions, he finds himself in the eye of a media storm that is turning darker and more dangerous, his life threatened by a hilarious retort—or at least it seemed hilarious at the time.Early Praise for #MeAsWell, A Novel“Mehlman’s narrative is spirited, political, and both hilarious and sadly reflective of the digital culture that can befriend or betray on a whim. A witty, culturally perceptive dark comedy.”–Kirkus ReviewsPraise for Mehlman's first novel, It Won't Always Be This Great “It turns out that not only can Peter Mehlman write funny television, he can write a funny book. Who knew?”–Julia Louis-Dreyfus, star of Veep and Seinfeld “Anyone who writes for television gets frustrated that they can’t write like Peter Mehlman. Now he’s going to make novelists mad too. Mehlman’s writing style is completely unique and creates an intimate bond between the narrator and the reader. You finish the book feeling as though you’ve made a new friend.” – Aaron Sorkin, Academy and Emmy-award winning screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The West Wing, The Social Network, and The Newsroom “Equal parts moral dilemma, subtle social commentary, and journey of self-discovery, Mehlman’s tale of a man forced outside the comfort zone of his ‘respectable, decent, low-impact, relaxed-fit, gluten-free world’ is both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving.” –Publishers Weekly
New Stories We Tell is the third in a series of women-centric journalism text/anthologies created to celebrate the great women of American longform writing. New Stories features sixteen of the most talked-about contemporary magazine writers.Each chapter includes a landmark true story, a bio, and an interview with the writer. We learn about lives, careers, writing philosophies, tricks of the trade, and backstories. Taken together, the assembled articles-republished from both legacy and new media--paint a picture of the shifting role of the genre known variously as longform, creative or literary nonfiction, and the New Journalism.Writers include Rachel Aviv, Anne Babe, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Pamela Colloff, Sara Corbett, Vanessa Grigoriadis, Brooke Jarvis, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Sheelah Kolhatkar, Jaeah Lee, Lizzie Presser, Janet Reitman, Lisa Taddeo, Jia Tolentino, Amy Wallace, and Elizabeth Weil.While journalists today, as always, are pledged to intellectual honesty and a true reporting of the facts, more than ever the genre is seen as an outlet for agency and a tool of social justice. Almost all of the women featured in New Stories We Tell aim their considerable journalistic talents at pressing issues of our day. Maybe someday soon, books like this won't be necessary. Written by women or not, these stories are simply great work.About the editors: Kaylen Ralph is a writer and editor; Joanna Demkiewicz is a marketing director for an independent press. Graduates of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, they were co-founders of the groundbreaking publication The Riveter, a longform magazine by women for everyone.PRAISE FOR NEW STORIES WE TELL "A well-selected anthology of potent stories by formidable women writers."-Kirkus Reviews"I would have killed for this book when I was a young and obsessed reader. I'm now an old and obsessed reader and I can't wait to read (reread) the stories and especially the As Told Tos. I'm honored to be in such amazing company."-Sara Corbett, coauthor, Becoming by Michelle Obama "New Stories We Tell is a collection of true stories written by American women journalists. It is a known fact that men dominate the world of nonfiction. This book is different because it brings together the excellent contributions of women journalists on varied topics. I appreciate how the editors celebrate the differences between the writing styles of authors from varied backgrounds. Every story begins with a short biographical account by the writer that helps you to understand the underlying passion and focus of her journalism. Some of the stories are still lingering in my mind after reading the entire book." 4 OUT OF 4 STARS.- OnlineBookclub.org Praise for TSG's Women in Journalism Series:"The caliber of work makes The Stories We Tell a master class in long-form journalism."-Kirkus Reviews"It only took fifty years for the women of long-form journalism to really get their due in an anthology, the newly published The Stories We Tell . . . a feast of great writing by twenty journalists at the top of their game."- Harvard's Neiman Storyboard"Newswomen is an excellent start to catch us up on where the women are and what they've been doing all these years, namely, writing award-winning literary journalism that can inspire our students."-Literary Journalism Studies
Three days a week for more than 20 years, Mike Levine wrote newspaper columns that stood up for the little guy, celebrated the lives of everyday people and shined a light on the darkness of corrupt and inept public servants. <i>Words to Repair the World </i> represents a distillation of some of the best of those columns.Many knew Levine as a columnist for the <i>Times Herald-Record</i> in Middletown, N.Y., and later as executive editor of the newspaper. In life, Mike was a short guy, but in the world of journalism, he was a giant.His columns were filled with stories of parenthood and family and of living in the Hudson Valley. He wrote about his work as an editor and columnist and served as a watchdog that challenged the arrogance of the powerful and held them accountable.Equal parts preacher, mentor, comic and salesman, Mike sometimes talked about <i>Tikkun olam </i>, Hebrew for “repair of the world,” a concept that speaks to an aspiration to behave and act constructively and beneficially for the rest of the world. His work embraced that principle.Mike died in 2007 at the age of 54. He left this world too soon, but the legacy he left behind lives on in the hearts of many. <i>Words to Repair the World</i> is a tribute to that legacy.“Mike Levine was a wonderful human being and a great community newspaper editor who used his intuitive understanding of other people’s struggles with the difficulties of life to help his readers cope with and understand the complexities of the world’s problems. His columns were full of human kindness.” -- Jim Ottaway Jr., retired chairman of Ottaway Newspapers Inc.“Mike was the ultimate newspaper guy, from his looks to his speech to his unwavering ambition to stick up for the little guy. Every newspaper should be so lucky to have a Mike Levine writing and editing for it. His passion for newspapers and the good that could come out of them was unmatched.”— Jeff Cohen, former editor of the <i>Houston Chronicle</i>ABOUT THE EDITOR: Christopher Mele is a veteran newsman who, growing up in the Bronx, knew at the age of 11 that he wanted to cover the news. Over more than three decades, he's worked in newsrooms in New York and Pennsylvania and is currently a senior staff editor and weekend editor on the Express Team at <i>The New York Times</i>.
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