Sally Otis works as a waitress in order to support her three children and a jobless younger sister. They live in a down-trodden apartment house, which they share with other working class tenants. Her husband is in a State mental hospital and most likely there for good. Her deadbeat younger brother and a lodger from across the hall pay board to eat in her crowded little flat. As Christmas approaches, there is no money for gifts and no prospect of her husband returning home. As her burden becomes intolerable, Sally's sturdy courage begins to falter. To make matters worse, the sleazy, suspicious owner of the local night club - Nick Toresca - takes a fancy to Sally and won't leave her alone. As he is the brother of her boss at the greasy spoon, she is in no position to call the shots. Things are shaken up when Sally's sister - the swaggering, glamorous, independent Petey Braun - appears on the scene. All loud laugh, deep voice, self-confident aplomb and worldly generosity, Petey grabs the spotlight and centre of the stage and never lets them go. She is an American career woman - one who makes a career of men: she is a master of her trade. To give Sally a break, Petey sets about to dazzle Nick so that he has no eyes for Sally. Nothing is straightforward when Petey gets involved, however, so what follows is a swift-paced tale of tension, excitement and sibling rivalry as the very different worlds of Sally and Petey collide . . .
The great saga of an American ranching family that gripped readers in the New York Times bestselling novel Hard Country and its sequel, Backlands, concludes in The Last Ranch, the final, mesmerizing novel in Michael McGarrity’s powerful and richly authentic American West trilogy. When Matthew Kerney returns to his ranch in the remote, beautiful San Andres Mountains of New Mexico, honorably discharged after serving in Sicily during World War II, he must not only endeavor to recover physically and emotionally from a devastating combat injury, but he must also fight attempts by the U.S. Army to seize control of his land for expanded weapons testing. Yet keeping his land is only half the battle as he struggles with an aging father no longer able to carry his load at the ranch, an ex-convict intent on killing him, and a failing relationship with a woman he dearly loves. As Matt’s personal and family life unravels, a punishing drought pushes him to the brink of ruin, and he is forced to draw upon all his mental and physical resources to keep his world—and the people in it—from collapsing. Spanning the era from World War II to the end of the Vietnam conflict, The Last Ranch enthralls with the deeply rich, sometimes heartbreaking Kerney family saga as it steps brilliantly into the mid-twentieth-century world of the new American West.
New York is the city that never sleeps. This luminous book peels back the cover of darkness over the city as it hums along in the night, revealing a hidden world populated by the thousands of women and men who work and live the nightshift. Written with beauty and grace, Nightshift NYC weaves together cultural critique, vivid reportage, and arresting photographs to trace the inverted logic of the city at night. Russell Leigh Sharman and Cheryl Harris Sharman spent a year interviewing and shadowing fry cooks and coffee jockeys, train conductors, cab hacks, and dozens of others who keep the city running when the sun goes down. Investigating familiar places such diners and delis, they explore some less familiar ones as well—taking us on a walking tour of homelessness in Manhattan, onto a fishing boat out of Brooklyn, and into other little-known corners of the night. Traveling past the threshold of voyeurism into the lives of real people, they depict a social space entirely apart—one that is highly structured and inherently subversive. Together, these stories open a compelling view on contemporary urban life and, along the way, reveal the soul of the city itself.
California Schemin'is the remarkable real life story of how two rappers from Dundee pretended to be two rappers from California and duped the record industry out of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd - or Silibil N' Brains, as they became known - were two ordinary Scottish boys who shared an extraordinary dream: to become rap superstars. Creating new identities for themselves, they persuaded the music industry that they were the latest hot young talent from California. Silibil N' Brains then lived out that lie for more than two years, securing an enormous record deal with Sony and being catapulted into the industry high-life, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Madonna, Eminem and D12. But, ironically, they could never actually deliver and promote the album that they were paid so much money to put together. As soon as they became famous they would be recognised by anyone who had known them in their former lives in Scotland and the dream would evaporate. As the pressure mounted, there would be disastrous consequences … California Schemin' is a story of incredible highs and terrible lows, of doing whatever it takes to follow your dream.
The Stephen Lawrence tragedy - the night that changed race relations in Britain forever - is well known. Duwayne Brooks was Stephen's best friend and this is his story. It is one of friendship, of courage, a story of what really happened on the night of 22 April, 1993. It is also a warm, and in places heartbreaking account of someone who found themselves in circumstances too appalling to contemplate. As Duwayne's own story, the book also focuses on the way he himself was treated, both by his lawyer and the police, and sheds light on the manner in which the whole ordeal has been handled.
Village Voice Favorite Books of 2000 The popular book challenging the idea of a model minority, now in paperback! “How does it feel to be a problem?” asked W. E. B. Du Bois of black Americans in his classic The Souls of Black Folk. A hundred years later, Vijay Prashad asks South Asians “How does it feel to be a solution?” In this kaleidoscopic critique, Prashad looks into the complexities faced by the members of a “model minority”-one, he claims, that is consistently deployed as "a weapon in the war against black America." On a vast canvas, The Karma of Brown Folk attacks the two pillars of the “model minority” image, that South Asians are both inherently successful and pliant, and analyzes the ways in which U.S. immigration policy and American Orientalism have perpetuated these stereotypes. Prashad uses irony, humor, razor-sharp criticism, personal reflections, and historical research to challenge the arguments made by Dinesh D’Souza, who heralds South Asian success in the U.S., and to question the quiet accommodation to racism made by many South Asians. A look at Deepak Chopra and others whom Prashad terms “Godmen” shows us how some South Asians exploit the stereotype of inherent spirituality, much to the chagrin of other South Asians. Following the long engagement of American culture with South Asia, Prashad traces India’s effect on thinkers like Cotton Mather and Henry David Thoreau, Ravi Shankar’s influence on John Coltrane, and such essential issues as race versus caste and the connection between antiracism activism and anticolonial resistance. The Karma of Brown Folk locates the birth of the “model minority” myth, placing it firmly in the context of reaction to the struggle for Black Liberation. Prashad reclaims the long history of black and South Asian solidarity, discussing joint struggles in the U.S., the Caribbean, South Africa, and elsewhere, and exposes how these powerful moments of alliance faded from historical memory and were replaced by Indian support for antiblack racism. Ultimately, Prashad writes not just about South Asians in America but about America itself, in the tradition of Tocqueville, Du Bois, Richard Wright, and others. He explores the place of collective struggle and multiracial alliances in the transformation of self and community-in short, how Americans define themselves.
With the discovery of her birth father, 12-year-old River has definite thoughts about how her life should turn out—and that certainly does not include any of the challenges that keep popping up! It's not easy to decide if she should live with Gram, who has been her family for the past ten years, or with her father, who she's over-the-moon to have just met but knows little about. And when River is diagnosed with a condition that could impact her hopes and dreams and future, she feels overwhelmed and bewildered. That's when River asks God for help and decides to trust him with her dreams. As this tender-sweet story unfolds, River learns to persevere and stay hopeful that soon she will be part of a real family. Yes, her dream does come true...but not in the way she had planned!
I am a recent ex prisoner. My Nightmare is about a two year period in which my life was ripped away from me, my family destroyed and relationships ruined all because the police couldn't do their job properly and destroyed everything I had. I was never guilty but may also not have been able prove my innocence. This is a moot point as I chose (for very personal reasons) to plead guilty and protect my loved ones from further anguish and stress. This resulted in a normal everyday person with a beautiful wife and family, good job and a bright and secure future becoming the bitter manic depressive with suicidal tendencies that now writes this book. I have no love of the police anymore, nor for the law in general though I have no intention of doing anything stupid because of my views. Putting this book together, I hope, allows people, to see what I went through, to pray it never happens to them and helps to ease (if only slightly) the solitary and extremely lonely life I now choose to lead (if I cant have my family, I want nothing else). Thank you for taking the time to walk this journey with me.
Classic fairy tales get an oh-so-modern update in this fun, value-priced collection. Waiting for your prince to come? Forget it! Today’s heroines are plunging into love feet first—nary a glass slipper in sight. With nine delightful stories, this bundle offers contemporary twists on beloved fables such as Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, Snow White, and Aladdin. Cloaked in Blood: Little Red Riding Hood knows exactly how to handle the wolf in this shapeshifter tale. To Selena Kurt’s surprise, her clan matches her to Marcin Ulf, the big, bad wulfkin who broke her heart years ago. However, first they’re drawn into a tournament where they must face off with one another…just as their romance rekindles. The Cougar’s Pawn: Beauty Ellery Colvard is camping with friends when she gets carried away—literally—by beastly were-cougar Mason Foye, who needs a mate to avoid his fate. But witchy Ellery doesn’t believe in soul mates. If Mason can’t convince her to be his, he’s doomed to spend the rest of his days in his cougar form. Best Laid Plans: Practical anchorwoman Violet Gallagher and hotshot photojournalist Jake Macintyre live in different worlds, until the night she catches his eye at a party and loses more than her dancing shoes to him. Is their one enchanted evening worth a lifetime of dreams? Protecting the Prince: Someone’s determined to stop Eliam Prince from taking over the family shipping docks. He needs a bodyguard, no matter how much the concept makes him grumpy. But security expert Winter Wyn soon learns that keeping this beautiful man safe from sabotage, blackmailers, assassins, and his own stubborn pride isn’t nearly as hard as protecting her own bashful heart. Catch a Falling Star: Brianna Daniels’s courageous ailing stepsister has one wish: she wants to go to the ball. Brianna makes it happen and Natalie meets her prince at the fundraising gala for the city’s elite. The problem is, Brianna falls for gorgeous patent attorney Matthias Gustafson, too. What kind of wicked stepsister would begrudge a loving young woman’s one shot at happiness? A Late-Blooming Rose: Bookseller Beau Landry boldly ventures to the estate of bitter and downright beastly hermit Eva Mitchum, determined to buy her rare collection. What he discovers is a lonely, hurting, wheelchair-bound woman who has forgotten how to love. When she challenges Beau to stay with her in exchange for the books, the offer will change both their lives. His One Wish: Special forces veteran Aiden Cooper is hired to track down Turhan Technologies’ missing technical genius, Jin Ru, who’s disappeared with the prototype for their powerful new software. But when his path crosses with the alluring heiress of Turhan, Jazlin Morgan, sparks fly. Can they save her family’s company from her greedy uncle’s clutches? Music to her Ears: When blonde, bubbly Hannah “Goldie” Loxley gets a housesitting gig for the Rievaulx Trio, world-famous concert musicians, she accidentally ends up in the bed of middle brother Mike. Confusion soon leads to an undeniable attraction. But will their whirlwind romance falter when reality settles in? Fairy Trouble: When her new charge Cindy finals in an art competition in New York, fairy godmother Esmeralda must step into her slippers to attend Murphy Enterprises’ costume ball. She doesn’t expect to catch the eye of handsome, unassuming heir Ryan or fall for him. However, convincing this skeptic that magic is real and she’s not just a con artist will be no easy feat. Sensuality Level: Sensuality
