Bugsy & Other Stories


Book Description

From the author of Confidence and The Comedown comes a wildly imaginative story collection about queerness, neurodivergence, sexuality, and self-discovery. Frumkin’s latest book is a deliciously entertaining collection of five genre-defying stories that range from downright hilarious to brilliantly unhinged. Taken together, they celebrate a wide variety of human experiences. In the title story, a queer young adult with bipolar disorder drops out of college in a fog of depression, aimlessly drifting between maintaining their job at a fast food restaurant and dodging their mom’s texts. But when they fall in with a group of sex workers starring in BDSM films, they find radical freedom, love, and community. In other stories, we meet a psychiatrist whose meticulously-maintained life is upended by an Alex Trebek-like voice in his head, an e-girl celebrity who is being courted by a delusional fan, a young boy on the spectrum at odds with a neurotypical world determined to “cure” him, and an elderly woman whose consciousness is being transformed by her oncoming death. With incredible insight, compassion, and honesty, Frumkin unravels each story with tantalizing precision. Sexy and raw—and compulsively readable—this collection offers a look at our innermost selves as we all try to make sense of the world and our place in it.




Karma


Book Description

Karma in the Life After is about young a street hustler who died but he didn’t know that he was dead. He was transformed into a fly in the afterlife. He suffered the pain of dying as a fly. He also was seeing old friends whom had died years before him. They were living a miserable life in the afterlife. He was able to see his friends dying over and over. They were getting killed in the shape of animals and insects. Somehow, he was able to see them dying as humans. If they were not dying, they were going through a lot of pain. They did so much wrong on earth that they never got a chance to meet the creator. The young hustler was able to see the mysteries and answers to questions he always had in real life. He was living as a fly in the afterlife and was attracted to the things real flies were attracted to. He often prayed and hope it was all a dream. He no longer knew the time of day or the day of the week. Everyday seemed to be the same. When he met his guardian in the new life he didn’t know if he was there to help him or make fun of him. Then he realized he only died when his guardian disappeared. He was able to see the things that others could’ve own if they lived an honest life. During this afterlife he realized that he didn’t want to die. He now realized that the life he lived wasn’t a good one. He did not want to live as an insect that was being killed every ten minutes. He didn’t want to eat dog poop forever and he was no longer wanted to see his friends die over and over. Everything was becoming too painful to watch.




Bugsy's Shadow


Book Description

Early in the Prohibition era, Moe Sedway became part of the New York organized crime gang led by Meyer Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. A loyal and highly effective operative for Siegel, Sedway eventually gained monopoly control of the race wire service in Las Vegas and also became an effective casino manager of the Las Vegas Club, El Cortez, and the Rex Club. A breach in their relationship led to rumors that Sedway had gained Lansky’s approval for a “hit” on Siegel. The unsolved mystery of who murdered Bugsy in 1947 has spawned numerous theories about the identity of the hitman, but regardless of who pulled the trigger, Bugsy’s death opened the way for Moe to flourish as his own man at last. Long overshadowed by Bugsy in the annals of organized crime in America, Moe Sedway is now at last brought out into the light in this riveting tale of the sensational life and times of one of Vegas’s most mysterious and little-known figures.




Bugsy Siegel


Book Description

The story of the notorious Jewish gangster who ascended from impoverished beginnings to the glittering Las Vegas strip "[A] brisk-reading chronicle of Siegel’s life and crimes."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal "Fast-paced and absorbing. . . . With a keen eye for the amusing, and humanizing detail, [Shnayerson] enlivens the traditional rise-and-fall narrative."—Jenna Weissman Joselit, New York Times Book Review In a brief life that led to a violent end, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (1906–1947) rose from desperate poverty to ill‑gotten riches, from an early‑twentieth‑century family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side to a kingdom of his own making in Las Vegas. In this captivating portrait, author Michael Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel but rather to understand him in all his complexity. Through the 1920s, 1930s, and most of the 1940s, Bugsy Siegel and his longtime partner in crime Meyer Lansky engaged in innumerable acts of violence. As World War II came to an end, Siegel saw the potential for a huge, elegant casino resort in the sands of Las Vegas. Jewish gangsters built nearly all of the Vegas casinos that followed. Then, one by one, they disappeared. Siegel’s story laces through a larger, generational story of eastern European Jewish immigrants in the early‑ to mid‑twentieth century.




Southern Gospel


Book Description

JONELL EVERSOLE AND THE REVEREND BUDDY JAMES HAGEN LIVE WHAT THEY THINK ARE NORMAL, QUIET LIVES IN A SMALL SOUTHERN TOWN. SHE'S THE DAUGHTER OF A WELL-KNOWN LOCAL BUSINESSMAN, THE WIFE OF AN ASSISTANT PASTOR AND THE OWNER OF A DOWNTOWN ANTIQUE SHOP. JONELL'S LIFE IS DEVOTED TO FAMILY AND CHURCH UNTIL EVENTS CAUSE HER TO BECOME INVOLVED IN TRYING TO SOLVE A POTENTIALLY SCANDALOUS MYSTERY TARGETING THE WEALTHIEST FAMILY IN TOWN. HER EMPLOYEE, MARTY, IS SOMEHOW INVOLVED, MAKING JONELL EVEN MORE CURIOUS AS SHE UNCOVERS SITUATIONS SHE WOULD HAVE NEVER BELIEVED COULD OCCUR IN HER QUIET HOMETOWN. MEANWHILE, THE REVEREND HAGEN, PASTOR OF THE LARGEST CHURCH IN TOWN, IS SUDDENLY IN DANGER OF LOSING HIS CHURCH, HIS FAMILY AND HIS CAREER AS HIS PAST CATCHES UP WITH HIM AND HIS LIFE BECOMES FILLED WITH FRUSTRATION AND FEAR. BOTH JONELL AND BUDDY FACE SHOCKING REVELATIONS CAUSING THEM TO RE-EVALUATE THEIR PREVIOUSLY CALM, RELATIVELY UNEVENTFUL LIVES.




Diffrent -Part 1


Book Description

This is real life story of a mans journey through a dangerous life of drug smuggling, dealing and using. From the dark streets of London to the prison, the author attempts to redeem himself by expressing his life mistakes in his own words




The Beadle Files: Idiot Dreams


Book Description

Idiot Dreams, the fifth installment of The Beadle Files, begins in the midst of a mysterious encounter in the fog. LC Beadle is on a quest for information from an informant who warns him of secrets and danger whilst wondering what he’s doing in Tennessee. As the multidimensional story unfolds, many characters chance upon mystery or warnings of danger whilst asleep. Emma Rafferty and Tatiyana Baglio are concerned that Sonny Trego is out of his depth; much pessimism surrounds an early conversation between the pianist and the gypsy. Meanwhile, Sonny is busily running hither and yon chasing leads for stories to advance his career while his relationship with Bonnie Heckert becomes more serious. However, unbeknownst to either of them, fate has intentions to play a cruel trick. In the meantime, at WT Ranch near Wagon Wheel Gap in Colorado, CJ Beadle is pregnant and having dream encounters with a curious spider monkey named Abner. There seems to be no way for her to escape his unwanted advances, inquisitive nature, or his unflinching and relentless warning: Danger, danger, danger for LC.




The Hooligans of Kandahar


Book Description

An Army combat veteran’s personal account of his time in service during the Afghan War with an unconventional squad. In the birthplace of the Taliban, some men lose their lives, some lose their sanity, and others their humanity. They are the Hooligans . . . During the peak of the Afghanistan War, a group of soldiers is dropped by helicopter into the remote mountains outside of Kandahar City. Mismanaged and overlooked by command, the squad must rely on each other to survive. Their mission is to train and advise the Afghan National Police and help rebuild the country of Afghanistan. The Afghan Police station they are assigned to live in is dangerous health hazard. Many of the police officers they are supposed to train are Taliban sleeper agents or the family of Taliban fighters. The ones that aren’t are often addicted to drugs, illiterate, or smuggling child slaves. The squad’s leader is Slim, a staff sergeant in his late twenties with so many mental health issues that his insanity is his most dominant personality trait. An alcoholic with a penchant for violent outbursts against both his own soldiers and the Afghans, he is more comfortable at war than at home. Joseph Kassabian is the youngest and most junior fire team leader in the squad. He’s charged with leading a team of soldiers not even old enough to drink. He himself is only 21 years old. As a combat veteran from previous deployments with four years in the Army, he assumes he has seen it all. But he has no idea how bad things can get in war-torn Kandahar . . . Humorous and grim yet honest, The Hooligans of Kandahar is Jarhead and The Hurt Locker meets I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Winner of the 2017 eLit Awards Gold Medal in Current Events Praise for The Hooligans of Kandahar “A frighteningly realistic snapshot of the current war. Mr. Kassabian paints a deeply moving portrait of the struggles faced by men and women in uniform caused by our current foreign policy (or lack thereof), while bringing us along for a horrific, often . . . hilarious ride through the life of an American soldier.” —William Fulton, author of the critically acclaimed book The Blood of Patriots, Hill vets 100 awardee, SME/Consultant Domestic Terrorism




Mafioso - Part 4


Book Description

Together They Fall With both Scott and Layla West behind bars, it’s now up to Bugsy and Lucky to run the family businesses. Lucky quickly steps into Layla’s shoes, but being second-in-command to an absentee boss has her feeling unsatisfied. She wants to sit at the helm of the organization with or without her mother’s blessing. Bugsy, who has always emulated Scott, takes his Mafioso impression too far and does the unthinkable. This one infraction may cost him his life. Scott and Layla, betrayed by their children, are not the forgiving type. With mother pitted against daughter and father against son, there may be more West funerals to attend.




A Nation of Amor


Book Description

In the West Town area of Chicago, pushed from neighborhood to neighborhood to the burned-out back end of the city, the Puerto Rican Latin Kings gang reigns supreme. Begun in the 1960s by the three brothers of the Matos family, Angel, Bobo, and Reynaldo, the original Latin Kings protected Puerto Rican families from other gangs. Since then, Bobo was elected a city councilman, Reynaldo did time for his involvement with a radical political group, and Angel was shot dead during a race riot. As in royalty, Latin King leadership passed on to Angel’s eldest son Flaco.