Leonard James is on an extraordinary quest: to be a man of value. The outcast of a dysfunctional family, Leonard is perplexed and incensed by life's injustices, beginning with the untimely death of cousin Butch. Leonard vows to overcome the adversity in his life. However, he resorts to alcohol and becomes addicted after failing to free himself from his frustration and anxiety. Life events, some of which are of Leonard's own making, leave him a vagabond without direction. Disillusioned, Leonard wanders back to a simpler time and discovers what it means to be a man of value.
Then God Said to Me, I Have Him is the true story of one fateful summer, when the authors husband suffered a horrific accident, her mother was nearing death, and all of the difficulties in trying to juggle both grave situations at once. It is the true story of Gods willingness to wrap His arms around His grieving child in a tangible way, bringing comfort and hope. It is an account of a heavenly visitation where a glimpse of whats to come brings a whole new outlook on this life.
"Riveting plot, terrifying premise..." ~Tami Hoag, NYT Bestselling Author of Down The Darkest Road When forensic nurse Timmie Leary-Parker moves from LA to Puckett, Missouri to care for her ailing father, she's prepared for the slow pace, the small-town politics and the feeling that everyone knows her business. Then, patients in the hospital's Alzheimer's Unit start dying in unprecedented numbers. Everyone refuses to investigate the town's most lucrative business, and no one will challenge the hospital's Golden Boy director. No one, except Timmie. Convinced a serial killer walks the Alzheimer's Unit where her father lies ill, Timmie digs up a burned-out Pulitzer-winning reporter and dives into a quagmire of corruption and greed. "Dreyer writes with great wit and sensitivity, especially about the problems of loving and coping with older relatives." ~The Times-Picayune Eileen Dreyer knocks readers off their feet. You won't forget the power, pain and moral ambiguity of this incredible novel." ~Romantic Times Publisher's Note: As a former trauma nurse, Eileen Dreyer combines her real-world medical knowledge and superb story-telling to bring readers a series of uniquely plotted, spine-tingling, medical mysteries. Fans of Tami Hoag, Elizabeth George, Nora Roberts as well as John Lutz, Michael Crichton and Patricia Cornwell will enjoy these well-crafted medical thrillers.
A working-class vato looks for love, lust, and meaning in the Southwest in this “highly evocative” New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year (Publishers Weekly). Mickey Acuña is a man suspended between a shrouded past and an uncertain future. Emerging from the landscape of the Southwest, buffeted by life and licking his wounds, he moves into a YMCA to wait for a check that is coming to save him—a check that demands an address. As days and then weeks pass without its arrival, Mickey picks up work; odd jobs at first, then shifts at the Y’s cash register. He hangs out with his neighbors, plays handball, drinks coffee, shoots pool, gets drunk, and falls in love with the women he meets, works with, and passes on the street. In the vacuum of the Y, Mickey unwittingly finds himself becoming the center of a community starved for meaning: Sarge, with his fast-food coupons; Omar, with his drunken rages and obsession with the vanished Lucy; Rosemary, whose abundant physical presence both attracts and repels him. Mickey fights to maintain his distance and his freedom, until the narrative converges abruptly around him in a profound and shocking conclusion. “Gilb buoys his tale with sensitivity, acuity, and humor.” —Library Journal “His characterizations of the underemployed, mentally ill and abandoned men and women who congregate there are vibrant.” —Publishers Weekly
The funniest Italian American comedy you will ever read is here! Sunday dinner at the Luchanni Family is the place where everyone gets a double serving of great food, gossip, family love, arguing about who gave the least at a wedding, and the person who did not show up at a family funeral… Please come and join us for this funny new special episode!
Preceding the end of a previous relationship gone sour with Ex Terrell Marshall, Jeremiah Johnson throws his dating hat back into the dating game arena. His desire to not give-up on love in the same-gender loving community was considered special by some, and yet rare for many. Still, nothing could fizzle out Jeremiah's desire at obtaining an emotional healthy relationship again as he once had with Terrell and his Ex-girlfriend, and now best friend Kelly Owen. Yes, Jeremiah once dated Kelly until the day she discovered the facts concerning Jeremiah's sexuality. But as time moved forward, so did the healing process for Jeremiah and Kelly. Forgiveness was a given. However, at the zenith of his career, Jeremiah meets the Man of his dreams; so at least he thought. Now, for the third time in recent years Jeremiah is at a crossroads, as dirty little secrets comes to surface. Shall he stay the course and wish for a better tomorrow? Will he bail like a slave running for freedom and refuge?
Butch Queens Up in Pumpsexamines Ballroom culture, in which inner-city LGBT individuals dress, dance, and vogue to compete for prizes and trophies. Participants are affiliated with a house, an alternative family structure typically named after haute couture designers and providing support to this diverse community. Marlon M. Bailey’s rich first-person performance ethnography of the Ballroom scene in Detroit examines Ballroom as a queer cultural formation that upsets dominant notions of gender, sexuality, kinship, and community.
1932: Fortune and celebrity are years behind Butch Cardinal. Once a world-class wrestler, Cardinal now serves as hired muscle for a second-rate Chicago mobster. While collecting a parcel from a gangland lowlife, Cardinal witnesses the man's murder. Though wounded, he escapes the killers and flees into the night carrying the package. In it is a necklace with a metal pendant. Bent and scratched, the thing looks like a piece of junk, but the trinket is the reason a man died. It's the reason a lot of people will die. Finding shelter with another shamed wrestler in New Orleans, Cardinal embarks on search for answers that will reveal a world of metallic charms and weapons, all forged with unimaginable powers. Alone and outgunned, Cardinal must stand against the Chicago mobs, a brilliant and insane hitman, the police, and a mysterious order intent on retrieving their relic.
"What's the big deal about getting through the night? Is there something I should know?" "Yes," he mumbled, "Don't go to sleep." Welcome to the dark world of Ryan Knox. Six months ago he had it all, a wife, a great job, and plenty of money. But suddenly he found himself alone, out of work, and almost broke. If he didn't find something, and quick, he might lose the only thing he had left...his house. That's why he thought his luck was changing when he got the graveyard shift at K-talk radio. What Ryan didn't know was that there were things at K-talk even stranger than the staff. Dark things. Sinister things. Things that only came out at night...when he was there alone. His luck was about to change all right. For the worse! Midnight Radio gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, 'Killer Job.'
From 1951 until 1974, Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia was the site of thousands of experiments on prisoners conducted by researchers under the direction of University of Pennsylvania dermatologist Albert M. Kligman. While most of the experiments were testing cosmetics, detergents, and deodorants, the trials also included scores of Phase I drug trials, inoculations of radioactive isotopes, and applications of dioxin in addition to mind-control experiments for the Army and CIA. These experiments often left the subject-prisoners, mostly African Americans, in excruciating pain and had long-term debilitating effects on their health. This is one among many episodes of the sordid history of medical experimentation on the black population of the United States. The story of the Holmesburg trials was documented by Allen Hornblum in his 1998 book Acres of Skin. The more general history of African Americans as human guinea pigs has most recently been told by Harriet Washington in her 2007 book Medical Apartheid. The subject is currently a topic of heated public debate in the wake of a 2006 report from an influential panel of medical experts recommending that the federal government loosen the regulations in place since the 1970s that have limited the testing of pharmaceuticals on prison inmates. Sentenced to Science retells the story of the Holmesburg experiments more dramatically through the eyes of one black man, Edward “Butch” Anthony, who suffered greatly from the experiments for which he “volunteered” during multiple terms at the prison. This is not only one black man’s highly personal account of what it was like to be an imprisoned test subject, but also a sobering reminder that there were many African Americans caught in the viselike grip of a scientific research community willing to bend any code of ethics in order to accomplish its goals and a criminal justice system that sold prisoners to the highest bidder.
