Author: Sarah Aronson Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 1101516216 Category : Juvenile Fiction Languages : en Pages : 169
Book Description
Ari Fish believes in two things: his hero-Wayne Timcoe, the greatest soccer goalie to ever come out of Somerset Valley-and luck. So when Ari finds a rare and valuable Wayne Timcoe trading card, he's sure his luck has changed for the better. Especially when he's picked to be the starting goalie on his team. But when the card is stolen-and his best friend and the new girl on the team accuse each other of taking it-suddenly Ari can't save a goal, everyone is fighting, and he doesn't know who, or what, to believe in. Before the team falls apart, Ari must learn how to make his own luck, and figure out what it truly means to be a hero.
Author: Brain Gibbs Glaze Publisher: Ustar Publishing ISBN: 1519792247 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 325
Book Description
“Time stopped, I heard nothing, but felt the recoil, forcing my hand to jerk back. I watched the bullet and sensed it travel through her head and then the sound as it exited, made everything crystal clear. I must have closed my eyes, because I never saw any blood as her head didn't seem to budge. It was surreal. Then, being so close, the matter from her brain, head and skull splattered onto my face. I can recall, not thinking, taking my tongue licking the blood from my face and using the sleeve of my hoodie to wipe off the rest. At that moment I realized I crossed over to the dark side.” -Glaze suspected of killing of a rookie cop, that enraged the country and started police drug raids and investigations throughout America, tells the real facts behind the killing of Edward Byrnes. -Beyond Lucky is a story of extraordinary violence, brutality and redemption. Crack, money, murder and Brian “Glaze” Gibbs became synonymous to local and federal law enforcement agencies. Brian admits he was guided by a distorted logic and the peer pressure of the inner city and the desire to be Fly: shakin, money makin and stylin’. -From the bloody streets of New York to being singled out by Joe Biden’s 1996 senate subcommittee investigating the effectiveness of the Witness Protection Program. During that hearing the US Government admitted it had given him the deal, believing he was responsible for fifty murders, and was allowed to keep thirty-five million dollars from his trade as a drug lord. -"Glaze" describes in great detail how despite being raised by a loving mother and being a church going child he became a major drug lord. He started out as an enforcer for one of the most notorious drug lords and eventually became so bloodthirsty that his mentor and accomplices had to restrain him. -What makes Brian's story so special is that individuals such as Leslie Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General, who fought to get him into the Witness Protection program after Glaze confessed to multiple murders, attempted murders and drug trafficking. -Beyond Lucky! How does a man like Brian "Glaze" Gibbs roll the dice and escape a death sentence, or multiple life sentences, and survived the New York City drug wars that resulted in hundreds of people being killed – too many of them by him. He has been described as the murderer with a big heart and endless charisma. -After serving only eight years and eight months for his crimes, he was given a new identity and unbeknownst to his neighbors – he is now a murderer in their midst. -It's easy for Brian to say he has changed, been redeemed, but to have it confirmed by key individuals whom he is still in contact with such as: Joe Ponzi, Chief Investigator for the New York State District Attorney's Office and Leslie Caldwell, Assistant United State Attorney, FBI agents Richard Martinez and David Higgins who originally were Glaze's nemesis, fought to get him one more chance at life. Glaze, when asked why he was so fortunate, he responded, “Well, I wonder myself, but I'm not one to second guess God." -Brian "Glaze" Gibbs is the blueprint for every drug lord that that grew up in York City. A story any wannabe criminal, drug dealer should read before hitting "The Street" wanting to make $40,000 a day.
Author: Jamel Brinkley Publisher: Graywolf Press ISBN: 1555979955 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION In the nine expansive, searching stories of A Lucky Man, fathers and sons attempt to salvage relationships with friends and family members and confront mistakes made in the past. An imaginative young boy from the Bronx goes swimming with his group from day camp at a backyard pool in the suburbs, and faces the effects of power and privilege in ways he can barely grasp. A teen intent on proving himself a man through the all-night revel of J’Ouvert can’t help but look out for his impressionable younger brother. A pair of college boys on the prowl follow two girls home from a party and have to own the uncomfortable truth of their desires. And at a capoeira conference, two brothers grapple with how to tell the story of their family, caught in the dance of their painful, fractured history. Jamel Brinkley’s stories, in a debut that announces the arrival of a significant new voice, reflect the tenderness and vulnerability of black men and boys whose hopes sometimes betray them, especially in a world shaped by race, gender, and class—where luck may be the greatest fiction of all.
Author: Jerry E. Strahan Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi ISBN: 1496808339 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 233
Book Description
When walking the French Quarter and watching a Lucky Dog salesman set up that colorful cart and call out to entice customers, don't you wonder how such a business works? As a knowing review in Rolling Stone stated, "People have always loved the cart and harbored a mysterious need to ride it. Revelers have been known to climb on top of the rolling wienies, screaming 'Yippee kaya!' as vendors stoically push them back to the barn at 4 a.m." Since 1947 the red and yellow carts have trumpeted good fortune and sustenance. Jerry E. Strahan recounts the wild adventures of the Bourbon Street wienie salesmen but also takes readers well beyond New Orleans. In fact, he takes them halfway around the world, where this unique pushcart business maneuvered its way through the bureaucratic red tape of a communist country to become a licensed corporation in the People's Republic of China. In China, two points quickly became apparent to Strahan. First, 99 percent of the Chinese population had no idea what a Lucky Dog cart represented. One elderly passerby declared it to be a missile. Second, the success or failure of any joint venture in the Asian nation is directly proportional to the political clout of that company's local partner. Lucky Dogs also recounts how the business and its vendors survived Hurricane Katrina. Miraculously, it reopened only six months after the storm in a city where more than 80 percent of the landmass had been flooded and where less than 40 percent of the population had returned. To reestablish itself in what many described as Third World conditions, the company had to transform its operation. This work mixes business history, autobiography, survival story, and an insider's look at the bizarre lives of some of Bourbon Street's most quirky characters--the dauntless Lucky Dog vendors. Both humorous and tragic, though it may read like fiction, it is, for better or worse, all fact.
Author: Heather Avis Publisher: Zondervan ISBN: 0310345499 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 224
Book Description
When life looks radically different than the plan we have for ourselves, it's the lucky few that recognize God's plan is best. That's what adoptive mom Heather Avis learned, and that's the invitation of this book. As the mother of three adopted children - two with Down syndrome - Heather Avis has learned that it's truly the lucky few who get to live a life like hers, who actually recognize that God's plans are best, even when they seem so radically different from the plans we have for ourselves. When Heather started her journey into parenthood she never thought it would look like this, never planned to have three adopted children, and certainly never imagined that two of them would have Down syndrome. But like most things God does, once she stepped into the craziness and confusion that comes with the unknown and the unplanned, she realized that they were indeed among the lucky few. Discover in this book what 70,000+ followers of Heather's hit Instagram account @macymakesmyday already know: the power of faith and family can help us stay strong in the toughest times. This book will also be especially touching to those with adopted family members or children with Down syndrome in their lives.
Author: Karla Starr Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 069813981X Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
“I don't know when I've been so wowed by a new author” –Chip Health, co-author of The Power of Moments and Switch A talented journalist reveals the hidden patterns behind what we call "luck" -- and shows us how we can all improve outcomes despite life’s inevitable randomness. "Do you believe in luck?" is a polarizing question, one you might ask on a first date. Some of us believe that we make our own luck. Others see inequality everywhere and think that everyone’s fate is at the whim of the cosmos. Karla Starr has a third answer: unlucky, "random" outcomes have predictable effects on our behavior that often make us act in self-defeating ways without even realizing it. In this groundbreaking book, Starr traces wealth, health, and happiness back to subconscious neurological processes, blind cultural assumptions, and tiny details you're in the habit of overlooking. Each chapter reveals how we can cultivate personal strengths to overcome life’s unlucky patterns. For instance: • Everyone has free access to that magic productivity app—motivation. The problem? It isn’t evenly distributed. What lucky accidents of history explain patterns behind why certain groups of people are more motivated in some situations than others? • If you look like an underperforming employee, your resume can't override the gut-level assumptions that a potential boss will make from your LinkedIn photo. How can we make sure that someone’s first impression is favorable? • Just as people use irrelevant traits to make assumptions about your intelligence, kindness, and trustworthiness, we also make inaccurate snap judgments. How do these judgments affect our interactions, and what should we assume about others to maximize our odds of having lucky encounters? We don’t always realize when the world's invisible biases work to our advantage or recognize how much of a role we play in our own lack of luck. By ending the guessing game about how luck works, Starr allows you to improve your fortunes while expending minimal effort.
Author: A.M. Strickland Publisher: Imprint ISBN: 1250198755 Category : Young Adult Fiction Languages : en Pages : 400
Book Description
Beyond the Black Door is a young adult dark fantasy about unlocking the mysteries around and within us—no matter the cost... Everyone has a soul. Some are beautiful gardens, others are frightening dungeons. Soulwalkers—like Kamai and her mother—can journey into other people's souls while they sleep. But no matter where Kamai visits, she sees the black door. It follows her into every soul, and her mother has told her to never, ever open it. When Kamai touches the door, it is warm and beating, like it has a pulse. When she puts her ear to it, she hears her own name whispered from the other side. And when tragedy strikes, Kamai does the unthinkable: she opens the door. A.M. Strickland's imaginative dark fantasy features court intrigue and romance, a main character coming to terms with her asexuality, and twists and turns as a seductive mystery unfolds that endangers not just Kamai's own soul, but the entire kingdom ... An Imprint Book “I couldn’t put down this deliciously dark dream of a fantasy.” —New York Times bestselling author Lisa Maxwell “A dark delight, gorgeously written and as twisty and enigmatic as a labyrinth at twilight. I wanted to stay lost in its pages forever, wandering ever deeper into the maze of Strickland’s beguiling, intricately imagined world.” —Margaret Rogerson, New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens
Author: Boyd Craven Jr Publisher: CreateSpace ISBN: 9781493654055 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 100
Book Description
Whether you have pet rabbits, show rabbits, fiber rabbits or a small meat rabbit herd, you already know how expensive feed prices are getting. This book will pay for itself many times over in feed savings alone. It will also enable you to go confidently into a natural feeding program, bettering your rabbit's health and happiness. In Volume 1 of The Urban Rabbit Project series "Backyard Meat Rabbits" I wrote for the beginner's benefit about why to raise rabbits, planning for rabbits and introduced an educational community. In Volume 2, I am joined by a gentleman with over 30 years of knowledge and experience in feeding rabbits naturally. Mr. Rick Worden, owner of Rise And Shine Rabbitry and RiseAndShineRabbitry.com will share with us his take on going Beyond The Pellet. Like myself, Rick has worked extensively at moving away from commercial feed and towards natural feed for our rabbits. We write this together, aimed at a more advanced audience of Rabbiteers looking to take control of what their rabbits eat, what their feed costs are and ultimately what they eat.
Author: Hanchao Lu Publisher: Univ of California Press ISBN: 052093167X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 474
Book Description
How did ordinary people live through the extraordinary changes that have swept across modern China? How did peasants transform themselves into urbanites? How did the citizens of Shanghai cope with the epic upheavals—revolution, war, and again revolution—that shook their lives? Even after decades of scholarship devoted to modern Chinese history, our understanding of the daily lives of the common people of China remains sketchy and incomplete. In this carefully researched study, Hanchao Lu weaves rich documentary data with ethnographic surveys and interviews to reconstruct the fabric of everyday life in China's largest and most complex city in the first half of this century.
Author: Yu-kai Chou Publisher: Packt Publishing Ltd ISBN: 183921077X Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 500
Book Description
Learn all about implementing a good gamification design into your products, workplace, and lifestyle Key FeaturesExplore what makes a game fun and engagingGain insight into the Octalysis Framework and its applicationsDiscover the potential of the Core Drives of gamification through real-world scenariosBook Description Effective gamification is a combination of game design, game dynamics, user experience, and ROI-driving business implementations. This book explores the interplay between these disciplines and captures the core principles that contribute to a good gamification design. The book starts with an overview of the Octalysis Framework and the 8 Core Drives that can be used to build strategies around the various systems that make games engaging. As the book progresses, each chapter delves deep into a Core Drive, explaining its design and how it should be used. Finally, to apply all the concepts and techniques that you learn throughout, the book contains a brief showcase of using the Octalysis Framework to design a project experience from scratch. After reading this book, you'll have the knowledge and skills to enable the widespread adoption of good gamification and human-focused design in all types of industries. What you will learnDiscover ways to use gamification techniques in real-world situationsDesign fun, engaging, and rewarding experiences with OctalysisUnderstand what gamification means and how to categorize itLeverage the power of different Core Drives in your applicationsExplore how Left Brain and Right Brain Core Drives differ in motivation and design methodologiesExamine the fascinating intricacies of White Hat and Black Hat Core DrivesWho this book is for Anyone who wants to implement gamification principles and techniques into their products, workplace, and lifestyle will find this book useful.
Author: Sarah Aronson
Author: Brain Gibbs Glaze
Author: Jamel Brinkley
Author: Jerry E. Strahan
Author: Heather Avis
Author: Karla Starr
Author: A.M. Strickland
Author: Boyd Craven Jr
Author: Hanchao Lu
Author: Yu-kai Chou