Repulsiveness personified, that's me. I own a mirror, and I'm not afraid to look in it. What you see on the surface is a reflection of what runs under my skin. I'm a loan shark. Breaking people is in my blood. The Haynes's were supposed to be a straightforward job. Go in and pull the trigger twice. One bullet for Charlie, one for his sister. But when I saw Valentina, I wanted her. Only, in our world, those who owe us don't get second chances. No way in hell will my mother let her live. So I devised a plan to keep her.It's depraved.It's immoral.It's dubious.It's perfect.Just like her.(DUBIOUS is the first full-length novel in a two-part duet and ends on a cliffhanger. The second book, CONSENT, will be available on 14 November 2017. This is a dark romance with a criminal anti-hero and forced seduction. Reader discretion is advised.)
A DARK MAFIA ROMANCE"Perversely hot, gritty, and richly textured, Valentina and Gabriel's story is one of the best dark romances I've read." -- Anna Zaires, New York Times bestselling author of Twist MeI'm a loan shark. Breaking people is in my blood. The Haynes's were supposed to be a straightforward job. Go in and pull the trigger twice. One bullet for Charlie, one for his sister. But when I saw Valentina, I wanted her. Only, in our world, those who owe us don't get second chances. No way in hell will my mother let her live. So I devised a plan to keep her.It's depraved.It's immoral.It's dubious.It's perfect.Just like her.
From the creator of the New York Times bestselling Griffin & Sabine series, Nick Bantock, whose work is collected across the globe. From the creator of the bestselling Griffin & Sabine series comes a visual puzzle book posed by a mysterious character named Magnus Berlin. Readers must study Berlin's introductory note, list of clues, and 16 multifaceted notes and envelopes to decode cryptic anagrams, pictograms, number puzzles, and wordplay. When solved, each clue reveals one word—but the rest remains a mystery. • Multiple clues to keep players guessing • Beautiful layout • A challenge for even the most advanced puzzle solvers Anyone who likes the mysteries of The Morning Star: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine is Illuminated, The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy Boxed Set will have fun with this puzzle book. • A perfect gift for anyone who likes mysteries and solving puzzles • Fans of Nick Bantock will love this mystery • Those who enjoy solving riddles will have fun solving these clues
A lawyer is sucked into a couple’s hostile divorce in this mystery with “a stellar ending” from the original detective series that inspired the HBO show (Kirkus Reviews). Edward Garvin is a very successful businessman with a very unhappy ex-wife—who wants his money. So Garvin calls on lawyer Perry Mason to protect his company from her schemes, and ensure the divorce they’d gotten in Mexico is actually finalized. But when Garvin’s former spouse is struck down by a killer, Mason’s client becomes the chief suspect. Fortunately, the attorney “comes up with dazzling answers” to the mystery . . . (The New York Times). This whodunit is part of Edgar Award–winning author Erle Stanley Gardner’s classic, long-running Perry Mason series, which has sold three hundred million copies and serves as the inspiration for the HBO show starring Matthew Rhys and Tatiana Maslany. DON’T MISS THE NEW HBO ORIGINAL SERIES PERRY MASON, BASED ON CHARACTERS FROM ERLE STANLEY GARDNER’S NOVELS, STARRING EMMY AWARD WINNER MATTHEW RHYS
Traces the way popular attitudes came to demonize young mothers and examines the profound social and economic changes that have influenced debate on the issue, especially since the 1970s. --From publisher description.
California roll, Chinese take-out, American-made kimchi, dogmeat, monosodium glutamate, SPAM—all are examples of what Robert Ji-Song Ku calls “dubious” foods. Strongly associated with Asian and Asian American gastronomy, they are commonly understood as ersatz, depraved, or simply bad. In Dubious Gastronomy, Ku contends that these foods share a spiritual fellowship with Asians in the United States in that the Asian presence, be it culinary or corporeal, is often considered watered-down, counterfeit, or debased manifestations of the “real thing.” The American expression of Asianness is defined as doubly inauthentic—as insufficiently Asian and unreliably American when measured against a largely ideological if not entirely political standard of authentic Asia and America. By exploring the other side of what is prescriptively understood as proper Asian gastronomy, Ku suggests that Asian cultural expressions occurring in places such as Los Angeles, Honolulu, New York City, and even Baton Rouge are no less critical to understanding the meaning of Asian food—and, by extension, Asian people—than culinary expressions that took place in Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai centuries ago. In critically considering the impure and hybridized with serious and often whimsical intent, Dubious Gastronomy argues that while the notion of cultural authenticity is troubled, troubling, and troublesome, the apocryphal is not necessarily a bad thing: The dubious can be and is often quite delicious. Dubious Gastronomy overlaps a number of disciplines, including American and Asian American studies, Asian diasporic studies, literary and cultural studies, and the burgeoning field of food studies. More importantly, however, the book fulfills the critical task of amalgamating these areas and putting them in conversation with one another. Written in an engaging and fluid style, it promises to appeal a wide audience of readers who seriously enjoys eating—and reading and thinking about—food.
What were the intentions of early China's historians? Modern readers must contend with the tension between the narrators' moralizing commentary and their description of events. Although these historians had notions of evidence, it is not clear to what extent they valued what contemporary scholars would deem "hard" facts. Offering an innovative approach to premodern historical documents, Garret P. S. Olberding argues that the speeches of court advisors reveal subtle strategies of information management in the early monarchic context. Olberding focuses on those addresses concerning military campaigns where evidence would be important in guiding immediate social and political policy. His analysis reveals the sophisticated conventions that governed the imperial advisor's logic and suasion in critical state discussions, which were specifically intended to counter anticipated doubts. Dubious Facts illuminates both the decision-making processes that informed early Chinese military campaigns and the historical records that represent them.
"To the victors belong the spoils" is a time-honored cliche. When in 1865 northern armies defeated the greatest challenge ever posed to the Union, issues of spoils and peace terms dominated public debate. But precisely what did the victorious North want from the Reconstruction process? Historians generally have shown far less interest in northern goals than in what terms southerners were willing to accept. Robert Sawrey now seeks to redress the balance by examining the post-Civil War attitudes of a representative northern state, Ohio. Sawrey's probing study explores precisely what the key issues were for politically active Ohioans and what they sought in a Reconstruction policy. Through extensive research in contemporary newspapers, manuscripts, legislative debates, and diaries, he offers the most complete picture ever presented of northern attitudes on the two crucial issues of Reconstruction -- the terms of readmission and the fate of the former slaves. Ohioans' struggle to find an equation for restoring a Union that now included nearly four million free blacks was complicated, he finds, by their prejudices and their belief in white superiority. Because they regarded the "planter conspiracy" as a primary cause of the war, they sought to assure future peace through control of the planters -- a position that compelled them to advocate basic rights for ex-slaves. At the same time, they continued to support white supremacy throughout the nation. To reconcile these contradictory positions was a daunt-ing task. Yet by 1870, Sawrey finds, most politically involved Ohioans believed Reconstruction had secured their basic goals. Dubious Victory offers a fresh approach to understanding the limits of what was achievable during Reconstruction. It also explains why the achievements of the period now seem to have been so limited.
Over the last decades of the 20th century, and into the 21st, humor on late-night TV became a more influential part of the United States’ political conversations. Not only did viewers talk about what the shows were saying, but serious journalists in newspapers and television news did as well. This book explores how Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert became popular pundits, with their commentaries often being shown on the news or quoted in the papers, and how Tina Fey’s parody of Sarah Palin eclipsed the real life candidate herself. This transformation occurred after the attacks on 9/11 and the beginning of the War in Iraq, when comedy figures were often more critical and informative than traditional news sources. At the same time, they became more substantive in their critiques than political humor often had been in the past, which relied heavily on mocking political candidates’ personality quirks. Using transcripts from Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report during the presidential elections from 1980-2008, this book takes a comprehensive look at how the comedy itself transformed. In addition, the analysis includes how journalists in the Washington Post and the New York Times discussed the shows at the time, revealing how they once denigrated the programs, but came to regard them as valuable narrative resources.
