Born Under a Bad Sign

Born Under a Bad Sign

Author: Max Razo

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2009-09

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1441540466

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Book Review A born-again's harrowing autobiography retraces his path from an emotionally impoverished childhood, through a successful criminal career and, finally, to the redemption of the confessional. Razo assures his reader that his story will be unembellished, with no false modesty or undue embarrassment, and after the first few pages, it's clear he will keep his word. Razo begins his meditation with his earliest memories of growing up working-class in the dusty, sunny atmosphere of post-war San Diego. Despite the city's burgeoning diversity and sense of opportunity, his veteran father's American Indian heritage runs the family into trouble and teaches Razo some early lessons on the harsh realities of American culture. Though his family does help keep him in school for a while, his mother and father are over-extended with Razo and his five sisters. Though the emotions run hot between his mother and father usually it seems between rage and a begrudging commitment there is little feeling left over for the children. Razo doesn't shirk from any topic and provides some unique insights into the awkward presexuality that develops between the members of such a large cloister of siblings, especially when there is only one male to go around. It's a brave choice and makes good on Razo's promise of full disclosure. Through the machinations of poverty, prison, drugs and kung fu, Razo eventually impresses a major player with his martial arts and so finds himself one of Hell's Angels and on his way toward an illicit seven-figure salary. These years aren't overworked with analysis, and even when some regret seeps in, it seems a bit half-hearted (he was having fun, after all). The ragged emotions of such a life, though familiar territory in fiction and nonfiction alike, are still made interesting by their sheer detail and a narrative voice that isn t polished enough to hide the author's hell-bent and engaging character. Razo's life is colorful to be sure, and he was even a successful off-roading champion for a spell, but the real interest is Razo's unlikely negotiations of the mortal pitfalls of the drug trade amid so many murdered and murderous friends. Skeptical readers will conclude the author was saved more by a plea deal than by holy intervention, but it's Razo's story and there is no doubting that he's told it as he lived it. A harrowing, willful account of a life led hard and fast. -Kirkus Discoveries


The Sopranos

The Sopranos

Author: Franco Ricci

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2014-06-09

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 1442668822

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Often hailed as one of the greatest television series of all time, The Sopranos is a product of its time, firmly embedded in the problems of post-industrial, post-ethnic America. In The Sopranos: Born under a Bad Sign, Franco Ricci examines the groundbreaking HBO series and its impact as a cultural phenomenon. Ricci demonstrates an encyclopedic knowledge of the series, the genre, and their social context in his analysis of the show’s complex themes and characters. He explores The Sopranos’ deep engagement with problems of race, class, gender, and identity, specifically in its portrayal of the Italian-American experience, consumer and media-driven society, and contemporary psychosocial issues. The series’ protagonist, Mafia boss and patriarch Tony Soprano, in many ways embodies the anxieties of our age. Focusing on Tony’s internal struggles and interactions with his therapist, family, and associates, Ricci traces this archetypal character’s existential conflicts and sheds light on his search for self, connection, and meaning. Comprehensive in scope and sophisticated in approach, The Sopranos: Born under a Bad Sign is richly rewarding reading for anyone with an interest in the popular television drama, both as entertainment and social commentary.


Under a Bad Sign

Under a Bad Sign

Author: Jonathan Munby

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2011-07-15

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 0226550362

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What accounts for the persistence of the figure of the black criminal in popular culture created by African Americans? Unearthing the overlooked history of art that has often seemed at odds with the politics of civil rights and racial advancement, Under a Bad Sign explores the rationale behind this tradition of criminal self-representation from the Harlem Renaissance to contemporary gangsta culture. In this lively exploration, Jonathan Munby takes a uniquely broad view, laying bare the way the criminal appears within and moves among literary, musical, and visual arts. Munby traces the legacy of badness in Rudolph Fisher and Chester Himes’s detective fiction and in Claude McKay, Julian Mayfield, and Donald Goines’s urban experience writing. Ranging from Peetie Wheatstraw’s gangster blues to gangsta rap, he also examines criminals in popular songs. Turning to the screen, the underworld films of Oscar Micheaux and Ralph Cooper, the 1970s blaxploitation cycle, and the 1990s hood movie come under his microscope as well. Ultimately, Munby concludes that this tradition has been a misunderstood aspect of African American civic life and that, rather than undermining black culture, it forms a rich and enduring response to being outcast in America.


Bad Luck and Trouble

Bad Luck and Trouble

Author: Lee Child

Publisher: Bantam

Published: 2007-05-01

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0440336856

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THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING JACK REACHER SERIES • The inspiration for season two of the hit streaming series Reacher! “Electrifying . . . this series [is] utterly addictive.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times From a helicopter high above the California desert, a man is sent free-falling into the night. On the streets of Portland, Jack Reacher is pulled out of his wandering life and plunged into the heart of a conspiracy that is killing old friends . . . and the people he once trusted with his life. Reacher is the ultimate loner—no phone, no ties, no address. But a woman from his old military unit has found him using a signal only the eight members of their elite team would know. Then she tells him a terrifying story about the brutal death of a man they both served with. Soon Reacher is reuniting with the survivors of his team, scrambling to unravel the sudden disappearance of two other comrades. But Reacher won’t give up—because in a world of bad luck and trouble, when someone targets Jack Reacher and his team, they’d better be ready for what comes right back at them.


Born Under a Good Sign

Born Under a Good Sign

Author: Kristy Robinett

Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide

Published: 2019-11-08

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 0738757764

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Your Essential Guide to Quick and Easy Astrology Set yourself up for better relationships and a bright future with Born Under a Good Sign, the uncomplicated guide to astrological sun signs. This book strips away the woo-woo and technical charts, leaving only the most useful and clear information on each sun sign's traits and tendencies. With sensible explanations and playful stories, Kristy Robinett provides everything you need to understand the larger impacts of the signs. You'll learn about planetary influences, communication styles, strengths and challenges, the masculine and feminine energy of each sign, and much more. Kristy also reveals how to handle difficult situations that arise with partners, parents, friends, and children. Featuring indispensable advice that isn't limited to any particular year, Born Under a Good Sign is perfect for improving your life and relationships.


Born Under a Bad Sky

Born Under a Bad Sky

Author: Jeffrey St. Clair

Publisher: AK Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13:

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A chilling survey of the American landscape. Investigative journalist Jeffrey St Clair guides readers through the environmental wreckage of North America, from the plutonium-contaminated fields of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation to Indian Point Energy Center, the world's most dangerous nuclear plant. St Clair also delivers a forthright critique of the appropriation and disempowerment of the mainstream environmental movement, finding rejuvenated life, hope and inspiration in grassroots campaigners who are still driven by a desire for social justice.


Why Nations Fail

Why Nations Fail

Author: Daron Acemoglu

Publisher: Currency

Published: 2013-09-17

Total Pages: 546

ISBN-13: 0307719227

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Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.


Born Under a Bad Sign

Born Under a Bad Sign

Author: Mike Wayne Hester

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2010-10-18

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 145208520X

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Some people are born under a bad sign, born outside of society, born to end up on the wrong side of the law. Born Under A Bad Sign traces the lives of three such individuals. Little Joe Dean. A hustler raised on the mean streets of New York City, who learned the in and outs of drug dealing as a young boy, who learned how to kill in the Vietnam War, who learned that raising a family comes with a price. Joyce Cassel. A young woman raised on a farm in Storm Lake, Iowa, who was sexually abused by her father, who ran away from home as a teenager, who turned to prostitution to survive. Jason Dean. The son of Little Joe and Joyce, who found himself torn between the love for his father and mother, who failed at every attempt to fit in at school, who joined a gang to find his identity.


Ask a Manager

Ask a Manager

Author: Alison Green

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: 2018-05-01

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0399181822

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From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together